As law enforcers and soldiers scoured the facility for contraband, “degrading” anti-drug operation at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center saw hundreds of inmates ordered to strip naked, media reports said.
Pictures of the naked prisoners sitting on the concrete floor of the jail quadrangle under close guard went viral on social media after being posted by the Pinoy Ako Blog, among others, reported InterAksyon.
Cebu newspaper The Freeman reported that the inmates were roused from sleep then ordered to gather in the quadrangle and strip for the dawn “Greyhound” operation conducted by personnel of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-7, Philippine National Police, and Armed Forces of the Philippines, the report said.
The raiders reportedly found 76 cellular phones, 19 medium sachets of crystal meth or shabu worth at least P30,000, P92,000 in cash, a laptop computer and media players, lighters and drug paraphernalia.
The Freeman, citing PDEA-7 director Yogi Filemon Ruiz, said Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III himself insisted on conducting the operation because of information that drug deals were happening inside the prison.
In an interview with News5, Ruiz took “full responsibility” for ordering the inmates to strip, explaining it was “for the mutual safety of the raiders and the prisoners.” He said had a clothed detainee with a concealed weapon hurt a member of the raiding team, it could have triggered a riot or stampede.
The Freeman reportedly said Davide relieved CPDRC warden Gil Macato for his alleged failure to clean up the jail. Macato was supposedly not around during the raid, and did not know about the operation beforehand.
Davide appointed Bobby Legaspi, chief of the Provincial Civil Security Units, acting warden, noting that Macato had still not reported to him after the Tuesday raid. He was also considering augmenting security at the CPDRC with PNP or PDEA-7 personnel, said the news portal.
Charges will be filed against five inmates for illegal possession of dangerous drugs and drug paraphernalia.
The newspaper also reported that Vice Governor Agnes Magpale blaming lax security for the entry of contraband into the penitentiary. She believed jail guards did not inspect visitors strictly enough.
She added that the government even installed two signal jammers in January to prevent inmates from using cell phones to communicate with contacts outside the jail.
However, rights group Amnesty International on Thursday called the stripping of the inmates “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” and reminded authorities of their responsibility “to ensure that all persons deprived of their liberty are protected from torture and other ill-treatment.”
Karapatan reportedly called the incident “dehumanizing” and said the involvement of the police and military “made it worse” even as it stressed that it was just “the latest of known rights violations against detainees at (the) detention facility known as the Alcatraz in Cebu,”
It said similar operations in other detention centers, such as Camp Bagong Diwa, had led to assault and torture on inmates, including political prisoners. But while cases had been referred to the Commission on Human Rights, it said, “these remain unheeded to this day.”
“It is state obligation to guarantee that prisoners are treated in accordance with international standards, including the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners or the Mandela Rules,” InterAksyon quoted Amnesty as saying.
