BJMP official wants hall named after slain jailer

An official of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Western Visayas has suggested that a hall at the Metro Manila Rehabilitation Center , site of the infamous ‘Bicutan siege,' be named after one of the slain jailers.

Supt. Rodolfo A. Rivera, assistant regional director of the RBJMP6 said that naming one of the halls after Senior Jail Officer 4 Edgar T. Dajay Sr. is a fitting tribute. It must be so. No promotion in rank, spot or regular, can ever embolden a profile of (the) guts and glory (of) SJO4 Edgar T. Dajay Sr.

Dajay was one of the jail officers killed when suspected Abu Sayyaf members took over a building last March 14 this year. The standoff ended a day after when government forces stormed the building, resulting to the death of several Abu Sayyaf leaders.

Dajay will be buried at the Barotac Nuevo Municipal Cemetery on April 10, which is also the 26 th anniversary of his wedding to his wife Merlinda Cartagena Dajay.

He hails from Cabatuan, and was one of BJMP's ‘First 500,' BJMP personnel who were the first to initially man all the municipal, city and district jails under its administrative and operational mandates.

Before he joined the BJMP at the bidding of then Brig. Gen. Mondejar of the Philippine National Police's Office of the Jail Management and Penology, Dajay was with the now defunct Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police. He entered the service on October 1, 1979 . ( PIO, RBJMP6)