Jail guard in hot water for drug trade
LINGAYEN – Still unidentified drug lords continue their lucrative business inside the provincial jail by employing jail guards as pushers.
This became evident as a jail guard of the Pangasinan Provincial Jail along with two inmates suspected to be part of the illegal drug trade are being investigated by the Lingayen police station following the discovery of a substance suspected to be shabu inside a pack of crackers about to be delivered to an inmate last August 15.
Ret. Col. Rolando Diaz, provincial jail warden, however, refused to name the jail guard while the case is still under investigation.
“But this jail guard is now restricted in the premises of the provincial jail until the investigation is finished”, said Diaz.
It was female inmate Remedios Hernandez, who has been in detention for two years now for illegal drug cases, who tagged the jail guard as the source of the pack of crackers that contained a sachet of suspected shabu.
According to Diaz, Hernandez had requested jail guard Sergio Tamondong to bring the pack of crackers to a male inmate, Tristan Mendoza, who was in the cell for male inmates.
“However, Tamondong became suspicious of the pack since it looked unusually expanded. So together with his team leader Joey Padilla, they opened and inspected the pack and saw the sachet of what appeared to be shabu,” Diaz said.
When confronted with it, Hernandez pointed that the unnamed jail guard as the alleged source of the pack of crackers where a sachet was hidden.
Diaz promptly reported the incident to the police station. Padilla was also asked to explain the circumstances that led to the incident.
Diaz said if the investigation shows that jail guard was, indeed, the source of the illegal drugs, an administrative case will be filed against him while the PNP will file the appropriate criminal case.
Meanwhile, the jail management has begun conducting more rigid spot inspections inside cells and regularly rotated of duty shifts of the 39 jail guards in the facility that houses 331 inmates.
The incident was already the second time illegal drugs were discovered brought inside the jail. The first time was the discovery of a sachet of shabu inside a bangus.
“We are doing our best to intercept the illegal drugs being brought inside our jail”, said Diaz. (Hilda M. Austria/PNA)
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