Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin ‘Benhur’ Abalos warned wardens of jails under the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) to shape up, saying surprise visits will be part of his routine within his 100 days in office.

An attached agency of the DILG, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) is plagued with jail congestion woes aside from the entry of illegal drugs in its facilities.

Under his watch, Abalos emphasized the need to get rid and prevent the entry of illegal drugs in the BJMP-manned jails is a prime objective vowing to continue the Duterte administration’s war on drugs with adherence to due process and the rule of law.

“It is important to ease congestion as much as possible. Napaka-importante rito at napaka-importante sa lahat, sa lahat, walang droga sa kulungan. Nakakulong na (inmates) kung minsan, may droga pa diyan. (It is important that there are no drugs inside the jails. They are already in jail and yet there are still drugs in there). They better watch out),’’ Abalos said.

Even if all the jails cannot be inspected, Abalos warned of making unannounced visits in certain cell facilities and will have the persons deprived of liberty (PDL) subjected to drug tests vowing that the drug war will be as ‘as intensive as before’ based on the provisions of the Constitution.

“The war against drugs will be as intensive as before on the basis on my oath as a public official in accordance with the Constitution,’’ Abalos noted.

Abalos also stressed the need to review the laws ‘everything on the side of the police’ to determine why many drug cases were dismissed.

Under Section 21 of the Dangerous Drugs Act, Abalos said under this provision “once you have raid there should be an inventory and ensure the inventory should be witnessed by an elective official usually a barangay (official) and either a representative of the Prosecutor’s Office or a media representative.”

So out of three (witnesses) kailangan mo ng dalawa always (There should always be two out of the three witnesses present in the inventory). There should be an elected (official) usually it is a barangay official. Pero usually yung number two yung media o sinasbi nating representative of the DOJ (Department of Justice) or prosecutors walang nagpupunta (in the inventory) (But usually the second one the media representative and what we refer to as the DOJ representative are absent),’’ he noted.

Due to these incidents, Abalos noted that the drug cases are dismissed due to the technicality of what we can refer to as the lack of witnesses.

Citing the case in Mandaluyong whose mayor Menchie Abalos is his wife, the DILG chief stated that an employee was paid and assigned in the Fiscal’s Office to be the DOJ representative in all the drug raids.

Abalos said the official duty of the employee is to testify in the Prosecutor’s Office “and in doing so’’ the requirement in the inventory of the seized illegal drugs is satisfied.

With only a few drug cases dismissed under this scheme, Abalos said he intends to bring this up with the Governors’ League and Mayors’ League and hopefully convince them to adopt this system. (Chito A. Chavez)