AMERICAN PROBATION OFFICER VISITS PPA7

[Region Seven]

09may04. a probation and parole officer from manassas, virginia, u.s.a., tom mcdermott, together
with his filipina wife, visited regional office no. 7 of the parole and probation administration today.
he informed that he had been to the philippines and cebu five times already, having
been married to gemma arriesgado from leyte. it was only now that he had time to visit a probation office.
he first communicated with ppolpi's pol vincent perocho, who he met on the web and
who referred him to rd ofelia quijano of region 7. he was excited to exchange information
on how officers in our country handle their caseloads, the violation process, what sanctions are used by the
officers and what issues we share in common, ie. gangs, drug abuse, and mental health issues.
probation and parole officers from the cebu city offices were invited to interact
with the visiting u.s. probation officer, along with rd quijano and rpio ceres geromo.
surprisingly, their probation system had a lot of similiraties with ours. they
also had plenty of paper work which eats up their time for field work. personally,
he said, he goes on field work 60% of his time, saying this way he could get to know the
family of his clients better. their jails are also overcrowded and there are
also people who bring cigarettes (prohibited in their jails) and drugs into their
jails. drug cases are also prevalent in the county which he works as ppo.
the basic difference in our systems are they have both pre-sentence and post-sentence
investigations and a person can avail of probation there a number of times. we informed
him that in our country, we only handle convicted clients and can avail of the privilege once only in their lifetime.
unlucky for us, he has had clients in the u.s. who had been members of our akrho, bloods and crips. : )
they have a department of corrections under the commonwealth of virginia. that is, their governor appoints the head of this department. most often, the head changes with the political leadership.