THE new Davao City Jail court room, located inside the jail facility, was officially unveiled on Thursday afternoon, September 7, to minimize the risk of transporting high-risk inmates when attending court trials.
Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP)-Davao director Amelia Rayandayan said the facility was funded by the Rotary Club of South Davao District 3860.
The project was initiated to address the safety concern of the jail personnel when transporting the high-risk and high-profile inmates to attend court hearings.
"This would be beneficial especially on high-risk and high-profile [inmates]. We are transporting them from jail to court and this is quite risky. This is for public safety," Rayandayan said.
She added that there were instances in the past, based on BJMP statistics, on rescue operations and ambushes while transporting the inmates, but she further clarified that it has not so far happened in Davao City.
Jail Inspector Edo Lobenia, BJMP-Davao chief community relations service officer, told reporters that there are over 50 high-risk inmates inside the city jail including seven Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels, 15 New People's Army (NPA) members, three members of Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), five Maute terrorist group members and 27 organized groups.
"We are doing this to avoid the hassle of escorting because if we are going to escort these high profile inmates, we are going to require a lot of personnel. It will require augmentation coming from PNP (Philippine National Police), also from other law enforcement sector. This will minimize the risk so they will no longer be rescued by their comrades especially Maute," he said.
These inmates have separate rooms to avoid commotion inside the jail since each has different ideologies.
Lobenia said that in transporting an inmate, the ratio would be one inmate is to one officer, but for high-risk inmates it would 1:1 plus one jail guard.
"We have to exaggerate because we do not want to compromise the security of our personnel," he said.
The facility used to be an infirmary room and later converted to a court room. Its construction started last August 14 and was completed just this week. They hastened the construction of the building due to the hearing of Maute group members alleged to be behind the Roxas Night Market bombing last September 2, 2016.
He added that the court room is only intended for high-risk and not for regular inmates.
Lobenia also hopes the headquarters will accept their proposal on the transfer of high-risk inmates to the Special Intensive Care Area (Sica) inside the Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City where the high-risk inmates were detained.
Meanwhile, the court room will also be used on Friday, September 8, for the five Maute terrorist group members. They will be the first batch to face trial inside the new court room.
"By tomorrow, the five Maute group members who are involved in the Roxas bombing will have their court hearings in this court room so there is no need for us to transport them," Rayandayan said.
The accused are identified as TJ Macabalang, Wendel Apostol Facturan, Musali Mustapha, Zack Villanueva Lopez and Jericho de Rome, among others, who were earlier charged following the bombing that killed 15 people and hurt 69 others.