By PNA
GENERAL SANTOS CITY — The city council has launched an inventory and assessment of the existing sites of the city’s eight police stations.
Vice Mayor Shirlyn Banas-Nograles said the move is aimed to determine the ownership status of the lands being occupied by the police stations and help resolve possible pending problems.
Nograles said their previous evaluation showed that most sites of the city’s police stations have no clear titles and are facing issues with their location.
The eight police stations are located in barangays Dadiangas North, Labangal, Lagao, Fatima, Bula, San Isidro, Tambler, and Katangawan.
“We’re not exactly saying that they are informal dwellers but some of them are still situated by the side of the roads and should not have been allowed,” she said during the city council’s regular session on Tuesday.
Nograles said the problem has hampered the construction of permanent buildings for the police stations and prevented the city government from providing needed improvements.
For the inventory, she said City Councilor Franklin Gacal Jr., already initiated the move through the committee on public order and safety.
“We need to address this first, so we can better assist the development needs of our police stations,” Nograles said.
She cited the need to expand the existing lockup or detention facilities, which are currently congested.
City Councilor Dominador Lagare, chair of the committee on human rights, said their assessment showed that the detention cells of the city police stations were holding inmates beyond their capacity.
He said most of the cells, which measure 4 square meters, were holding “10 or more inmates 24/7.”
“The situation is really inhumane. I hope the city could appropriate money to help our police stations provide humane conditions to prisoners since they too are human beings,” he added.