DETAINEES at the Special Intensive Care Area 1 (Sica 1) Jail in Taguig City have slammed the violent suppression of the Makati City Jail inmates, who staged a noise barrage against bad food rations and the proliferation of illegal drugs in the facility.
In a statement, the detainees said they have watched television reports of the suppression in horror and expressed support for the continuing demand of detainees for better treatment from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
“The noise barrage was held in protest over the role of their jailers in the entry and proliferation of illegal drugs at the facility. They, likewise, assailed the poor quality of the food rationed to them by the BJMP,” the statement added.
“The anomalies being protested by the Makati City Jail inmates are not at all new to us. We have long been raising the issue of proliferation of illegal drugs in jails and also the continuing transactions
between big-time drug suppliers even in jails and their pushers outside unfettered by the iron bars of prison. We have also long been raising the issue of low budget allocation for food and very poor food rations in jails. The issue is practically a universal issue in all jails in the country,” the detainees added.
The signatories to the statement are National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF) peace consultants Adelberto Silva, Alan Jazmines, Ernesto Lorenzo, Ruben Saluta and Tirso Alcantara, and other detainees at the Sica1 Jail in Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City.
“The food rations of Makati City Jail inmates are supposed to be a lot better than what we are given as national jail inmates, and also what other inmates are being given in most other jails in the country,” they noted. “This is because Metro Manila city governments and other local governments in the country allocate a minimum of P20 up to P50 per inmate per day—in addition to the nationally allocated P50 per inmate per day—for the food budget in the jails within their jurisdiction.”
“The Makati City Jail, thus, has a food budget double the P50 worth of food rations per inmate per day, that we are theoretically supposed to receive here at the Sica1 Jail. Yet, the Makati City Jail inmates are complaining about the poor food rations being given to them,” Silva, Jazmines and the other political prisoners said in the statement.
They noted that a similar protest at the Bataan Provincial Jail succeeded after the warden, Jail Insp. Angelina Bautista, “took the side of the inmates, and raised the issue of the BJMP national leadership’s anomalies as regards the BJMP’s food budget for the inmates.”
“This happened as the BJMP was no longer allocating funds for food rations and wanted the Bataan Provincial Jail to use the funds of the local government. Funds from cities and towns are supposed to be used to supplement the BJMP’s food budget for the inmates,” the political prisoners added.
Bautista filed before the Ombudsman an administrative case over the issue against the BJMP national office officials, led by Director Diony Mamaril.
“We, political detainees at the Sica1 Jail, suffered much in sympathy as we saw on TV how the jail authorities continued to beat up the protesting inmates there, who then were already under control and were only squatting on the floor and entirely defenseless. Some were maimed and one of them even died because of the beatings,” they added.
“The Makati City Jail inmates have raised valid issues in their protest. But, instead of intently listening to and resolving those issues, the jail authorities there resorted to brutal fascist suppression of the noise barrage. They also resorted to the immediate transfer here, the Sica 1 Jail, of the suspected leaders of the protest by the Makati City Jail inmates,” the statement said.