Punchline
The woes of the District Jail in Dagupan
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
I visited Dr. Raul Sabado, he who was arrested two weeks ago for being at the wrong place with the wrong person at the wrong time, at the Dagupan City Jail facility in Bonuan where he is detained pending completion of the investigation of the illegal recruitment case filed against a Malaysian national. I would not comment on the merits of his case as this is now in the hands of his lawyers and the court although I found it odd that he was arrested and included in the charge sheet when the warrant of arrest was issued only against the Malaysian.
The friends of Dr. Sabado, a respected orthopedic doctor in the province, will be happy to know that his two-week detention has already resulted in normalizing his blood pressure, in rediscovering God through daily Bible readings, in shedding off pounds in his beer belly, and in discovering a cheap service for hair color application. He only laments that while he is considered the “resident doctor” in the facility, he has no medical tools and instruments to work with, not even for minor treatment of diseases and infection being suffered by the detainees.
Presently, he worries about the high rate of TB infection among detainees, all of whom are 60% Dagupan residents and 40% are from San Fabian and Mangaldan. He said the facility has no medicine to cure or prevent the spread of TB inside the facility.
He is appealing for stocks of medicines for the detainees, and yes, one sphygmomanometer.
In a brief talk with the new warden, Jail Supt. Edgar Bolcio, I was told that a nurse from the Region1 Medical Center will finally soon be visiting the facility once a month to check on the health of the inmates! Of course, that’s better than nothing but what can a monthly check-up do for the detainees if the facility has no medicine on stock to help cure even a common infection?
The Dagupan City Council can help alleviate the worsening health and living conditions in the facility brought about by severe congestion by requesting the R1MC to send a doctor-nurse team weekly to check on communicable diseases spreading in the facility.
(Post-script for Supt. Bolcio – The community will readily support your advocacy for a better and secure environment for the inmates. However, all your laudable plans can easily be negated by rude and discourteous jailguards who treat visitors like they were inmates themselves. A lesson in Good Manners & Courtesy 101 for your uniformed personnel will do wonders for your administration).
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POLLUTING THE BLUE BEACH. An equally serious concern for the city government is the continued pollution of the Blue Beach on account of the absence of a septic tank in the district jail. Yes, believe it or not, the facility built during the administration of Mayor Al Fernandez after the 1990 earthquake still has no septic tank after all these years! (The contractor of the BJMP who constructed the jail must have been given roughshod treatment to think he can get even by refusing to install a septic tank).
If the city officials think the construction of a septic tank is a problem of BJMP alone, then they are gravely mistaken. Where do they suppose the human wastes collected inside the facility daily end up? Certainly not at the BJMP regional headquarters in La Union!
This was already pointed out to the Lim administration early on but the warnings were ignored. The unregulated disposal of human wastes to the open sea continues to pose a serious threat to beachgoers’ health and the tourist business in Tondaligan Park.
I strongly suggest that the city councilors with the city’s health and environment officials in tow finally make that long-overdue trip to the facility to see for themselves and assess how the continued absence of a septic tank for the 350 inmates and 30+ jail guards is taking its toll on the beach and the city’s environment.
This is a major environmental and health crisis waiting to happen in Dagupan City. I hope the city officials will not wait for the s_ _t (forgive the pun) to hit the ceiling fan before they take cognizance of the problem that’s been staring at them for over a decade now.
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COPS’ INTEGRITY AND SHABU. The casual implication of P/ Supt Dionicio Borromeo, erstwhile chief of Dagupan police, in the operations of the biggest shabu lab in the country by the caretaker arrested inside the compound can only be interpreted as bad karma.
Who would have thought that someone considered a “lowlife” by cops would be the unwitting whistleblower of a senior police officer’s involvement in that multi-billion operation?
The police officials in the region and the province who were kept in the dark all these months are quietly resenting the surprise implication of Borromeo, for his suspected involvement alone already put them all under a serious cloud of suspicion. Their own integrity is now suspect. Worse, they fear that the bemedalled and multi-awarded former police chief could not have possibly operated alone, not in something as big as the operation of the raided shabu lab. They appear convinced that Borromeo, though yet to be found guilty, could not have operated alone, that he must have had protection as well from a number of his superiors.
They were one in saying that there should be no whitewash in the investigation especially now that text messages pointing to involvement of specific police officers (all graduates of PMA) have started to circulate. They are praying that Chief PNP Razon will be true to his promise that he will spare no one in the investigation.
Indeed, in the best interest of the service, the corrupt among them should be exposed at the soonest possible time. An attempt to protect the guilty will lead to massive demoralization among those who earnestly want to enjoy the people’s respect as honest and courageous police officers.
In Dagupan, city officials have also began to wonder whether the “intensive” campaign launched by Borromeo against drug dealing in the city was all a front. Tsk-tsk.
In fairness to Borromeo, he should be given the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. But if proven guilty, he and his accomplices should be damned for having had a hand in destroying the lives of thousands of our youth and their families.
(Readers may reach columnist at punch.sunday@gmail.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/punchline/
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