For the first time in my life as a journalist, I was able to get inside the city jail of Cebu. Not that I was arrested or something, but because I had to take a picture of the cell where five inmates were electrocuted at dawn today (June 20, 2006). What I saw was way beyond my imagination of a jampacked jail. At the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center, the city jail in Cebu, 2,500 inmates crowd the jail facility that has a capacity to hold only 250 persons.
Enough of the description of what I saw inside because before journalists were allowed to get inside the jail, the warden urged us not to take pictures of the view inside other than the cell of the five electrocuted prisoners. Cameramen were also told not to pan their cameras to nearby cells.
Okay. So, I was there standing outside the special security cell, or more commonly known as the holding cell of the city jail. Four candles were ligthed inside the empty cell, which on my calculations cannot accomodate 11 persons even if these persons will be standing up all the time that they will be placed inside the cell. But yes, the cell used to hold 11 persons. Today, however, it was empty because just a few hours ago, five inmates, half-naked while sleeping on the cemented floor of the cell were killed after a live wire touched the metal bar.
The other six inmates escaped death. Why? Because they were sleeping on a makeshift hammocks that they placed just near the ceiling. Meaning, their bodies didn't have direct contact with the metal bars. The five, however, weren't as lucky. It was just a day ago when they were brought to the city jail for various offenses so they were not able to make their own hammocks just as yet.
Jail guards and rescue personnel rushed the five to the city hospital but the victims were pronounced dead on arrival.
All five of them were sentenced to death even before their cases were heard in court, said one inmate. True, indeed. But staying for a year inside the crowded city jail is more than a death sentence and the electrocuted inmates could have been smiling right now because they have escaped from the harsh life inside the city jail.