Corpun file 24710 at www.corpun.com

Sun Star, Cebu, 10 August 2013

Soc helps Joavan pay debts at jail

By making partial payment, Talisay City councillor saved adopted son from paddling

By Flornisa M. Gitgano

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FORMER Talisay City mayor now Councilor Socrates Fernandez has rescued his adopted son from another form of punishment.

By paying some of Joavan Fernandez's debts at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), the councilor saved the younger Fernandez from paddling.

Aside from his P140,000 in payables to the canteen of the jail inmates' cooperative, Joavan owed some fellow inmates who agreed to tattoo his name on their bodies. Each tattoo reportedly costs P500.

The Talisay City councilor helped Joavan pay P40,000 to the canteen, reducing the younger man's payables to P100,000.

Joavan's bill at the jail canteen ballooned because he reportedly buys food and cigarettes for his fellow inmates.

Beating

CPDRC jail consultant Marco Toral said they called the councilor and informed him that Joavan was bound to get a beating from other inmates if his debts remained unpaid.

Inmates were subject to paddling (takal) as punishment for some misdemeanor. But in a command conference on Aug. 5, the CPDRC announced that they have abolished paddling.

Toral said, though, that there is no favoritism for Joavan at CPDRC.

"Wa'y datu, wa'y pobre (There are no rich or poor people here)," he said, adding that paddling was abolished because it was inhuman.

He said there are other ways to punish an inmate, like placing him or her in an isolated detention cell.