Jail managers seized and destroyed more than 3,800 cell phones from inmates of New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City on Thursday.
Also destroyed were prohibited gadgets confiscated since December, including 101 units of pocket Wi-Fi, 1,724 cell phone chargers, 41 tablets, seven laptops, and dozens of power banks, speakers, mobile signal amplifiers, DVD players and even a PlayStation console.
Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officers also tore up more than 2,000 rolls of tobacco and 1,000 cigarette sticks. Drugs were also seized, which were turned over to the police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
In November, BuCor Director General Gerald Bantag did the deed himself and later had the items flattened by a steam roller, even calling it a “symbolic move” of flattening out of corruption in the agency.
Other BuCor facilities simultaneously conducted their own “mass destruction” of illegal items past 3:30 p.m.
“What we did is a significant activity, proving that we do not stop our jobs in cleaning up our prisons despite the pandemic, and that our anticorruption and anti-illegal drug activities [will proceed],” said BuCor spokesperson Gabriel Chaclag. —DEXTER CABALZA