TACLOBAN CITY – Leyte provincial administrator Vincent Emnas announced that a P30 million would be allocated to repair the typhoon-damaged Leyte Provincial Jail, which witnessed two instances of jail breaks recently.
Emnas said that the repair of the provincial government-run prison facility is among the priorities of Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla among the damaged buildings owned by the province due to supertyphoon Yolanda.
The roofs of the buildings of the Leyte Provincial Jail, located in Barangay Kauswagan, Palo, were blown away during the typhoon, to include the facility’s perimeter fence.
During the typhoon, hundreds of the inmates there managed to escape but later were either rearrested or returned. And on January 30, close to 200 prisoners staged a jailbreak citing lack of food as the reason for doing so.
The Leyte Provincial Jail presently counts about 500 inmates.
“This was the mandate from Gov. Petilla after we submitted a report to him on the condition of the facility and on what is the better solution to avoid similar problems in the future if another strong typhoon such as Yolanda will happen again,” Emnas said, referring to the planned repair of the facility.
Meantime, administrator Emnas said that the provincial government has now addressed the problems of the inmates like the scarcity of foods.
“The inmates who went back brought with them their respective families. That was one of the reasons why they experience problem on food supply because the food was only allocated for them and not for their families. But we cannot stop them to give food to their families so the province had sent relief packs to them,” Emnas explained.(ROEL T.AMAZONA)
