PDEA CHIEF
Drug trade thriving in Bilibid
Blames crooked jail personnel
By Abigail Kwok, Tetch Torres
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 14:33:00 11/18/2008
Filed Under: Graft & Corruption, Illegal drugs, Prison
MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE) The head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said an illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City was thriving partly because of crooked officials and personnel of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).
“Yung mga taga-Bilibid hindi mo mapagkakatiwalaan yan eh [You cannot trust the Bilibid personnel]. This is a difficult thing. Diyan ako nakakakita ng mga bulag, bingi, tanga. Refrigerator pumapasok sa main entrance hindi nakikita. Ano tawag mo dun [That is where I have seen the blind, the deaf and the idiots. A refrigerator is brought in through the main entrance but no one sees it. What would you call that]?” PDEA director general Dionisio Santiago said at a press conference Monday.
Santiago also confirmed the contents of a letter received by his office on October 17 from a certain “Mrs. Maximum Security-NBP,” who wrote about alleged illegal activities, including drug peddling, inside the national penitentiary.
He said the letter was “100 percent correct,” especially on the drug trade inside the prison.
“It is happening. It does not stop. As a matter of fact, yung ibang droga nanggagaling sa loob ng Bilibid [some drugs come from inside Bilibid],” he said, adding that he could confirm this “based on my experience and…as a former Bureau of Corrections director.”
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said he would order BuCor director Oscar Calderon to investigate the allegations in the letter, acknowledging that the charges were “a very serious matter.”
However, Gonzalez also urged the letter writer to come forward to help with the investigation.
"We need to verify her letter. What if she only has a grudge against a prison official or a guard? Whether she's telling the truth or not, we can never tell unless she comes forward," Gonzalez explained.
While acknowledging that it was up to the BuCor to solve the problem, Santiago said: “May mga tao sa Bilibid na ayaw kong kausap. Maglolokohan lang kami [There are people at Bilibid that I don’t want to talk to. We would just be fooling ourselves]. There are people in that institution na hindi mo dapat makausap [that you should not talk to]. It’s a fact.”
Santiago claimed there is a “drug chain” linking the syndicates inside the prison to distribution networks outside.
“May link duon mula sa labas. Ang experience ko diyan, pumasok diyan cheke na blangko. Ibig sabihin, pinapasok ang sample doon, ina-approve ng head ng syndicate sa loob, at pag na-approve yun, fill up-an ngayon yung check [There is a link from outside. My experience is, a blank check is brought in. This means, a sample is brought in, the head of the syndicate inside the prison approves it, and once it is approved, the check is filled up]. I’m telling you, they’re inside. So magpakulong ka ng magpakulong dito, pag minamalas ka, dinadagdagan mo yung luho ng sindikato [So you are jailed and jailed again, if you are unlucky, you still add to the profits of the syndicate],” Santiago said.
The letter of Mrs. Maximum Security, who described herself as the wife of a Bilibid inmate, said every time she visited the prison was “always a ‘confusion’ to me. What many don’t know is that the high-walled place of prisoners is not really the meaning of corrections. It is the collection of immoral values among the prisoners as well as the authorities.”
She accused someone with the rank of superintendent of allowing the illegal activities, including allowing the use of cellular phones, inside the NBP compound.
“Big shot personalities are seen having it, [former Zamboanga congressman Romeo] Jalosjos, Chinese inmates, and those who are ‘malapit sa opisina at kay super [close to the superintendent].’ But the ordinary ones…if you can afford to pay P2,000, P3,000, or P4,000, you can have it [cell phone] back from those men in uniform who did regular searching in each dorm in the maximum security,” Mrs. Maximum Security said in her letter, a copy of which was obtained by INQUIRER.net.
She said some inmates even have laptop computers and have created accounts on the social networking site Friendster.
Aside from drugs, she said liquor sales, gambling, pawning, usury, prostitution and “gruesome acts of violence” were also rampant because of the “corruption among officers and men” running the prison.
“What drove me crazy was when I caught my husband with his co-inmates [engaged in a] pot session, shabu [methamphetamine hydrochloride], in particular. I was surprised yet, with due respect to my husband, I kept my cool, I kept quiet,” Mrs. Maximum Security said.
She also claimed inmates who use illegal drugs paid NBP officials P1,500 to P2,000 to switch drug test results.
“Men in uniform” would also allegedly tip off inmates and inform them of drug tests so they could prepare, Mrs. Maximum Security said.
Gonzalez gave assurances to the letter writer that she, her husband and family will be given protection should she decide to come forward.
Santiago said when he was BuCor chief, he attempted to rid the NBP of the drug trade by transferring certain inmates to other prison cells.
“Yung isang grupo dun nag-offer sa akin ng [One group there offered me] P2 million just to let them return. Yung main building [of the NBP], center ng trade yan [The main building is a center of trade]. It’s still happening, I’m telling you. The leadership of Bilibid should do something about it. Wala akong magagawa [I cannot do anything],” he said.
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