Five-star jail

Nothing is free in the metropolis’ biggest jail, especially the favors enjoyed by its “big fishes.” Nosy Tarsee’s informers said every privilege has a price tag, and the payments allegedly climb all the way up to the warden’s desk.

Take the aides. These are the “boys” of a jailed lawmaker and of former officials of the agency in charge of flood control projects. They are reportedly allowed to stay with their bosses, cooking their meals, running errands and fetching whatever the jailbirds fancy.

The cells, we are told, come with a full set of kitchenware, so no jailbird ever has to settle for institutional chow.

Some of the aides stay inside. Others slip out in the wee hours, but only after their bosses have gone to sleep in their air-conditioned cells. Convenient.

It gets better.

One former official of that flood control agency has allegedly been generous beyond the call of duty. He is said to have supplied a foreman for the warden’s house renovation, and the same man reportedly oversees a row of apartments she is building in Manila.

The warden’s child’s wedding was also sponsored, we hear, by the same former official, along with another high-ranking government official. This second official, by the way, is the one a veteran newsman once reported could simply walk out of jail if he wanted to. That, of course, was only a kuryente.

Not this time, say Nosy Tarsee’s informers. They are sure of their facts, and they promise photographs of the warden’s properties.

Trouble may come this week. Junior jail officers are said to be planning a sit-down strike. They would simply not report for duty, even at the risk of transfer or suspension, just to force an investigation of the warden.

The jail’s doctors and psychologists are also ready to protest. During a graft court hearing, the lady warden justified an aide for one of the big fish by citing his medical condition. The jail’s own medical staff said nobody had consulted them.

So who is the warden really serving, the inmates or the highest bidder?