Dangerous and armed

Authorities swooped down and confiscated improvised weapons and a mobile phone in an early Monday raid dubbed “Oplan Greyhound” on inmates’ cells at the Quezon City Jail.

Operatives of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Administration (PDEA) conducted the operation.

The PNP, BJMP and PDEA units used K-9 units in combing through Cells 1 to 7 to search for contraband.

Among the improvised weapons found were wooden knives, pipes, paddles, nails and weaponized spoons and forks.

Jail Superintendent Ermilito Moral cited the difficulty of searching for banned items inside the congested facility which houses 3,600 inmates although it was designed to hold only 800.

In February this year, a riot between the Commando and Sigue Sigue Sputnik gang erupted at the facility, resulting to injuries to nine inmates and a policeman.

Jail officers said that confiscating improvised weapons by holding regular raids do not prevent riots but can somehow lessen the gravity of the violence.

In a press briefing after the raid, Moral pished the fast-tracking of the resolution of criminal cases so innocent inmates are set free while the guilty ones are sent to the national penitentiary.

Doing so, would decongest BJMP facilities, he said.

In turning the facility inside out, the PDEA, PNP and BJMP personnel set the inmates into the courtyard while policemen searched their quarters for contraband.

Aside from the Commando and Sigue Sigue, two other main gangs operate, namely the Batang City Jail or BCJ and the Sputnik.

The BJMP is tasked to oversee inmates with pending court cases and who are held in various municipal, city and provincial jails.

The Bureau of Corrections, on the other hand, maintains the New Bilibid Prison in Manila and other penitentiaries in the country for convicted felons.

Over the weekend, Senator Richard Gordon pressed the creation of new court branches to unclog court dockets and fast-track the resolution of cases.