TAKING THEIR SWEET TIME ON BBRC

The cache of shabu, seized during a recent bust inside the Bagong
Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC), should top the list of
irregularities that have been hounding the detention facility.

It is already bad if one only considers that the drugs are for the
consumption of inmates. It becomes worse if the suspicion that part of
the supply is sold outside is proven true.

Getting a cut of the budget for prisoners' food is graft, true. Giving
preferential treatment to moneyed inmates does violate the rules. And
incompetence is apparent when some inmates are able to escape ever so
often.

But there is more than just crime in the trafficking of drugs inside
the jail or through it. It mocks law enforcement and speeds up the
destruction of lives, especially of detainees who are supposed to be
saved from their descent to hell.

One can also look at the drug bust this way: that what we now have in
BBRC is a facility and an organization that is in a worst shape
compared to previous years. Indeed, drug trafficking in jail can only
happen under a very so-so operation.

BBRC Warden Nestor Velasquez cannot do a Pontius Pilate on this one.
While he might not be directly involved in it, there is something to
be said about drug trafficking happening under his nose without him
knowing it.

And while Cebu City Government officials who initiated the surprise
inspection deserve a pat on the back, they too should share the blame
for the continued deterioration of the facility's operation.

For instance, the transfer of the jail to a bigger and better
organized facility in Kalunasan has been delayed for too long as the
City and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology spent too much
time debating over their roles.

It's not that nothing has been hatched to solve the BBRC problem or at
least halt the deterioration of jail operation. It's just that all
officials concerned seem to be taking their own sweet time in
implementing the solutions already agreed upon.