A SURPRISE inspection of the Davao City Jail in Maa dubbed Oplan Greyhound yielded drug paraphernalia, improvised sharp items, pornographic materials, and cash amounting to P124,000.
That's not a surprise. In any jail, such happens. The array of illegal items inside, however, manifests how conscientious the jail personnel are in their work.
That there are just improvised sharp items is a good indication that weapons are kept out. But you know prisoners, they can make a lot of things from little pieces of metals - including nails they extract from the structures around them, and their bunk beds, and everything.
That there are drug paraphernalia should be a warning, a heads-up, a red light, an alarm bell. What the warning is saying, there is need for closer inspection, more often. Let us, however, hope that this is not because there is a connivance among the guards and the prisoners such that the real stuff are kept out of sight.
Still, despite the need to remind the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology manning the city jail to do more inspections and ensure that visitors, personnel, and suppliers coming in are properly searched, we raise our glasses to the city jail administration and personnel for the relatively good job they are doing such that illegal items are reduced to the barest minimum. Thus, as we raise our glasses in congratulations, we say, "Kudos now, but you can do better next time."
The louder cheer, however, is reserved for the personnel of the Davao City Police Office, who during a random drug test of 334 members all tested negative.
Just continue with what each of you have sworn to abide and serve and we can create an ideal city for all of us, including those who need rehabilitation and correction.