Despite recent pronouncements of stricter measures inside the prison facility of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Dumaguete City, the proliferation of illegal drugs trade continues with still no clear information as to who is behind such activity.
Jail Officer 2 Cloyd Cornello Tubog disclosed Thursday morning that a detainee of the city jail in the outskirts village of Bajumpandan was found to have yielded 26 heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets believed to contain shabu early this week.
Tubog said the lock-up procedure around 8 p.m. Tuesday was being implemented and afterwards a head count followed, which revealed that two inmates were still inside the cell of another group of inmates that was already padlocked.
The two requested the jail guard that they wanted to return to their old cell.
Tubog said he became suspicious when the two inmates took longer than necessary to return to their cell, prompting him to suspect something unusual was going on.
He conducted a search on the inmate, Linde Garnica Gainsan, 24 years old, single, a resident of Barangay Buñao in Dumaguete, while the other campanion immediately went inside the old cell.
Gainsan’s left pocket yielded his cellphone and lighter while the right pocket yielded a pouch where the suspected shabu was placed.
The cellphone had plenty of illegal drugs transactions through text messaging, JO2 Tubog reported.
Gainsan was arrested in January 20 this year for selling and possession of illegal drugs in violation of Section 5 and Section 11 of RA 9165.
In an interview, Gainsan vehemently denied he knew the presence of the suspected shabu but only saw it on his way to fetch water at the faucet, following the orders of their “cell mayor,” whom he refused to identify.
He would have wanted the same turned over to their “mayor” but the jail guard frisked and searched him.
Tubog said before 6:00 o’clock early evening, the jail guards noticed attempts to throw in things from outside the jail premises.
This is not the first time that suspected shabu has been confiscated inside the city jail, which had prompted Dumaguete Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo to visit the facility and talk to BJMP authorities regarding the problem.
Meanwhile, police operatives swooped down late Tuesday on a suspected drug courier and seized 11 sachets believed to contain more or less ten grams of suspected shabu granules in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental.
The suspect was arrested following a transaction with members of the Provincial Intelligence Branch(PIB) and the Provincial Special Operations Group (PSOG) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) shortly before sundown Tuesday in Barangay Bajumpandan in this capital city.
The suspect, was identified as a certain Marie Xeanne R. Tolentino, 27 years old, single, and resident of Zone 4 in Looc, Dumaguete City.
Sr. Insp. Armil Von Alegria said the group received information two weeks ago about the suspect’s activity while going in and out of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology prison facility in Bajumpandan.
A transaction was made after visiting her boyfriend inside the jail, which resulted to the confiscation of more than 10 grams of shabu, worth P40,000 more or less.
In an interview, the suspect claimed she was merely requested by two of her former neighbors in Barangay Tinago identified only as “Justice” and “Tonton” to hand carry and deliver the stuff to the latter’s brother in Tinago.
At present, Sr. Insp. Alegria said they could not yet validate the claim of the suspect that the shabu indeed came from the city jail in spite of previous incidents where drugs are intercepted on their way out of the jail.
Unconfirmed reports have it that the confiscated suspected shabu was part of the shipment where almost one kilogram of alleged shabu was intercepted while being delivered in Colon Street last March 4, 2017. (JFP/JG)
