New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) on Thursday destroyed thousands of contraband inside the New
Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City seized amid the coronavirus disease pandemic.
“Very significant itong activity dahil hindi tayo tumitigil, kahit sa pandemic, sa ating regular na trabaho sa paglilinis sa loob ng
piitan,” Corrections spokesman Gabriel Chaclag said in a speech before the destruction of contraband.
(This is a significant activity because we did not stop in our job to cleanse our jails from contraband even during the pandemic.)
Steamrollers and hammers were used to destroy 3,817 cellphones; 101 units of mobile pocket wi-fi; 1,724 cellphone chargers; 70 pieces of headset; a digital television; 41 units of tablets; seven units of laptops; bluetooth speaker; powerbank; mobile signal amplifier; playstation and DVD players.
Also destroyed were 2,272 bars of tobacco, 1,114 hand-rolled cigarettes and 98 sticks of cigarettes.
The illegal items were seized since November 2019, Chaclag said. He noted that prison authorities have yet to give the estimated price of all the illegal items.
Chaclag vowed that they will sustain operations to remove the illegal items that were being used inside the prison cells.
“Sustainability lang ng ating operations. Remember na very creative itong mga ito so kapag tumigil ka, papasok sila,” he said in an ambush interview with reporters after the destruction of illegal items.
(We need sustainability here. Remember that these convicts are very creative so if you stop all of these efforts, the smuggling of illegal items will resume.)