UNTIL now, I still find it hard to believe that someone who is supposed to be detained in a secure facility like the Cebu City Jail can continue with his illicit activities.
How is that possible, you might ask?
We all know that cellular phones are not allowed inside. At least, that should be the case if we were living in an ideal world. But alas, we are in the Philippines where high-profile inmates can spend their jail sentence in relative luxury. At least, that’s what I’ve been told.
So how are they able to communicate with the outside world?
Do they use paper planes? Signal lamps? Morse code? Carrier pigeons, perhaps? Somebody, please enlighten me. Or is it as simple as issuing instructions to whoever visits them?
Carlo Magno Tude, a 36-year-old resident of Barangay Ermita who was arrested past midnight Saturday, March 6, 2021, with more than one kilo of shabu by members of the City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU), said he got his supply from Allen Ramas Badajos, an inmate at the Cebu City Jail.
Badajos was nabbed by operatives of the Carbon Police Station in 2016.
According to Tude, someone would drop off the shabu at his house or at a designated meeting place. He wasn’t specific. His job was to deliver it to buyers. Of course, it helped that he was a courier for an online delivery service.
For his efforts, he said he would receive P5,000 per transaction.
The whole thing is an affront to the Duterte administration’s ongoing war against illegal drugs.
It’s a slap in the face to anyone who has family members or loved ones who are hooked on that stuff.
And yet Maj. Jonathan Taneo, CDEU head, didn’t seem surprised that the mastermind or ring leader came from inside the Cebu City Jail.
Frankly, so am I. After all, this is not the first time that an arrested suspect pointed to a jail inmate as his source of illegal drugs.
Taneo said an informant sent them a message on Facebook regarding Tude’s illegal activities. He said they placed the suspect on surveillance for three weeks before conducting the buy-bust operation.
It sounded like it was all in a day’s work for the police official.
I’m not a law enforcement agent or a lawyer, so I don’t know what will happen next. But shouldn’t Taneo also question jail officials? Better yet, shouldn’t he verify if indeed Badajos was the source of the shabu?
I mean, how hard could that be? Badajos is already in custody.
At any rate, I believe all eyes should be on the Cebu City Jail. Because, let’s admit it, something fishy is going on inside.