A broadcast commentator said he suspects that Rep. Gwen Garcia just wanted to strike back at Cebu Gov. Junjun Davide in calling for a House investigation into the anomalies at the provincial jail. Davide defeated her two brothers in the 2013 and 2016 elections.
Maybe that too but the larger reason was underplayed in news reports about her Aug. 31 privilege speech.
The bigger and nobler motive must be that the jail -- known formally as Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) – was once “a source of pride, a best practice model” and known internationally in 2016 for its dancing program as part of its “rehab” for drug-hooked inmates.
How has it come to this, she asked. Weapons and drugs were found in the Aug. 13 raid. And more: drug equipment, P60,000 cash, fighting cocks and sex toys. (The sex toys could be justified, said one broadcast comment then, not the rest.)
Of course, the probe might also expose the failures and weaknesses of the Davide administration. That would be, as campaigners against drugs put it, collateral damage.
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Include Cebu City jail
“Cong.” Gwen may also decide to include the Cebu Ciy Jail since the bill she intends to file after the House probe won’t just be limited to one jail but to all jails in the country.
The city jail scandal was even wider in extent: P4.5 million cash, P240,000 worth of shabu, and other contraband seized inside the jail.
No sex toys though, which must tell of their vice of choice.
Would Gwen summon the governor, aside from Marco Toral who, she told the House, is an ex-convict out on appeal from a life sentence over drug crimes?
Only Davide could tell why “Guv” Junjun appointed Toral and how the jail’s “monumental gains” under her administration as governor “are erased, completely wiped out.”
From “a world-class facility” and “an international showcase evoking national pride” to a jail of scandal and shame, CPDRC has become.
That’s why she’s seeking the House investigation. Other results will just be windfall or gravy.
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Hospital ‘victims’
The mayor and vice mayor of a local government, no less, were alleged victims of “poor and inefficient service” of a hospital in two separate incidents.
They’ve been grumbling over their misfortune.
[bzzzzz@sunstar.com.ph or paseares@gmail.com]