The Philippine National Police has openly complained against feeding hundreds of law offenders detained in various police stations and units nationwide.
Chief Supt. Dennis Siervo, head of the PNP Human Rights Affairs Office, said it is the police unit that would end up shelling out money for the food of some 1,980 inmates across the country.
The inmates in the police stations and other police units were arrested but waiting for the commitment order from the court or transfer order to a city or provincial jail.
“The allocation is P50 for every inmate per day. With almost 2,000 inmates temporarily under our custody across the country, we are shelling out some P100,000 every day,” said Siervo.
Aside from congestion, Siervo said the PNP has not enough money to shoulder the food allowances of the inmates they would arrest as part of their law enforcement operations.
While some inmates receive food from their relatives every day, most of the detainees, however, are not being visited by their relatives, forcing the police to provide them with food. (Aaron B. Recuenco)
