Hazing in city jail

THE mother of a 40-year-old inmate at the Cebu City Jail sought President Noynoy Aquino’s help after he learned his son got hurt in a “traditional hazing” inside the jail.

Eddie O. Barrita

Small bites

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Nemia Ong said her son, Oliver, was beaten was beaten 110 times by the “bastonero” of BC 45 inside his cell because he was suspected of being a police asset.

Her son was lucky he survived. Criminals used to say, “Piyait (squealers) must die.”

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Nemia Ong said her heart broke upon seeing the condition of her son. “This cannot be. This has to be stopped,” she said.

One broken-hearted mother’s complaint to PNoy unwittingly exposed the unstoppable tradition of beating inmates at the city jail.

Either the jail authorities just closed their eyes or they looked the other way.

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The Cebu City Jail is holding more than double its capacity with some 2,000 inmates, most of them awaiting trial of their cases in city courts.

Jail authorities said they cannot monitor everything that goes on inside the cells.
It’s the inmates, one jail guard said, who are watching them.

As they say in Cabadiangan, “Nabali na ang kalibutan.”

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Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raymond Palatino wants to ban religious ceremonies and the display of religious symbols “within the premises and perimeter” of government offices.

Is his House Bill 6330 really intended to have religious freedom in government offices or just a ploy to free government offices of any signs of religion?

As the lead character in the movie “The Usual Suspects” said, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

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Pope Benedict XVI announced from Dublin, Ireland during the closing mass of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress that the 51st International Eucharistic Congress in 2016 would be held in Cebu City.

Delegates from all over the globe would by then be welcomed by Cebu’s brand new saint, San Pedro Calungsod.