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Thursday, January 27, 2005
Wenceslao: Prisoners have rights, too
By Bong O. Wenceslao
The first time I thought that something was amiss in Capitol’s handling of inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention Center (CPDRC) was when a news blackout was imposed during a protest action at the old jail in December.
When authorities exclude the media from the equation, one gets the feeling they are planning something sinister.
Soon, reports of abuse started to filter out even as the protesting prisoners were shipped to the new facility in Barangay Kalunasan. At the middle of the exchange of accusations was political detainee Edgardo Sacamay. Claims that he was mauled may not have been true, but the lack of transparency hampered acceptance of Capitol’s denial.
More details on the handling of prisoners during that protest action would later come out when two Capitol consultants, Byron Garcia and Benjamin Lascuña, quarreled. The latter accused the former of, among others, ordering him to use water cannon against the protesting prisoners and shoot those who would not go back to their detention cells.
Maybe Lascuña just made the accusation up to get back at Byron, but the fact remains that Capitol has since used the iron glove against CPDRC inmates in Kalunasan. That policy had the blessings of Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, who even refused calls by the prisoners for a dialogue. From this new policy stemmed the controversy involving Byron.
Actually, the reported encounter between Byron and court sheriff Julbert Opada was not the first of similar incidents. The first time was when a lady lawyer seeking audience with Sacamay was rebuffed. Apparently, the new Capitol policy involved turning CPDRC into a ranch, and with tough cowboys zealously circling the fence.
That policy is grounded on the thinking that prisoners have no rights other than to follow the dictates of their jailers. As a result, every act that would allow prisoners like Sacamay more leeway is being resisted, at times with a certain degree of ferocity. Thus was Judge Marilyn Yap’s order to have Sacamay examined by a doctor treated that way.
What I find reassuring in this episode, though, is the response of the governor to the Byron issue. There have been efforts at transparency in the investigation and it looks like she is willing to go deeper into the matter and find an acceptable solution to it. I hope this would lead to recognition of what the judges, in their manifesto on the issue said, that the humblest citizen (I would say, including prisoners) “has rights protected by the law.”
TEXTREAX. From an unidentified texter: “If I can buy a 5-liter bottle of purified water at P33, why does MCWD want to buy water, whose potability is dubious, from Carmen town at P25 per liter?”
(khanwens@yahoo.com/ 0927-2055064)
(January 27, 2005 issue)
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