De Lima says Bilibid ‘riot’ could be Palace ‘scare tactic’
Jaybee Sebastian (left) and Sen. Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILES
Senator Leila de Lima said the so-called “riot” at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) could be Malacanang’s way of scaring possible witnesses against her as part of its supposed “tele-serye” drama to project her as the “Bilibid Drug Queen.”
De Lima said threatening prisoners with violence and murder was “the height of Mafia tactics and gangster-style operations that make this government worse than a narco-state.”
“The official version of the DOJ (Department of Justice) is that this was a riot. Absent any other available reliable information, I am not discounting the fact that this is another way of the government ‘persuading’ the Bilibid 19 to testify against me and this incident should serve as a lesson to those who refuse to cooperate with the government and do Aguirre’s and Malacanang’s bidding,” she said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Aguirre is DOJ Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.
“If this is the case, this means we have reached a new level of murderous policy in this government,” she said.
“I am not discounting the possibility that this so-called riot is Malacanang’s way of sending its messages to prisoners who refuse to implicate me in the Bilibid drug trade as part of Aguirre’s and Malacanang tele-seryedrama projecting me as the Bilibid Drug Queen,” the senator added.
The riot at the NBP early Wednesday morning left high-profile inmate Tony Co dead, and three other prisoners — Jaybee Sebastian, Peter Co, and Vicente Sy — hurt.
READ: De Lima Bilibid ‘asset’ hurt in riot; high-profile inmate killed
De Lima earlier admitted that Sebastian, who is being linked to her, was used as a government asset when she was still the Justice secretary during the Aquino administration.
READ: De Lima says Sebastian a gov’t asset, OK if he testifies
If her suspicions were true, the senator then appealed to Malacanang to stop “these tragic, desperate, and despicable actions.”
“These prisoners are supposed to be under the government’s protection. To threaten them with violence and murder simply because they refuse to be used in the ongoing House hearing is the height of Mafia tactics and gangster-style operations that make this government worse than a narco-state,” De Lima said.
Some high-profile inmates have already testified at the House of Representatives, linking De Lima in the illegal drug trade at the NBP during her time as Justice secretary. The senator had repeatedly denied the allegations.
“It makes this government an assassin-state, a state that promotes murder and summary execution as policy and as weapon against its perceived enemies,” she said. CDG
