COVID or murder? BuCor revisits Sebastian death

Jaybee Sebastian. FILE PHOTO

An investigation of the suspicious deaths of high-profile inmates at New Bilibid Prison (NBP) has zeroed in on the case of Jaybee Sebastian, one of the accusers of former Sen. Leila de Lima and a prison gang leader, who was reported to have died of natural causes in 2020.

The possibility of foul play in Sebastian’s death has grown stronger after the discovery by the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) that he had not died in an NBP facility as earlier reported, but on an empty campus beside it, according to the agency’s acting director Gregorio Catapang Jr.

“When I visited Site Harry (a COVID-19 facility inside NBP), I talked with the inmates and personnel assigned there. We found out … that Sebastian did not die at Site Harry or NBP Hospital. He died at the University of Perpetual Help [extension school],” Catapang said in a radio interview on Thursday.

“We are now investigating why he was sent to the school [and not] the hospital,” he added.

The death certificate prepared by BuCor had indicated that Sebastian, 40, died of acute myocardial infarction, or heart attack, at NBP Hospital at 10:15 a.m. on July 18, 2020—16 days after he was transferred to Site Harry. COVID-19 was listed in the document as one of the “significant conditions contributing to death.”

Catapang said the bureau would also look into lapses by the personnel concerned, noting that Sebastian’s widow had requested BuCor for an autopsy to know the real cause of his death.

BuCor personnel, however, immediately had the body cremated at Panteon de Dasmariñas in Cavite province on the day he died, complying with COVID-19 protocols at the time.

Negative for COVID

A postmortem reverse trancription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test performed on the same day showed he was negative for COVID-19.

Both BuCor and the National Bureau of Investigation are reinvestigating the deaths of several prominent inmates in 2020 on orders of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla.

From May to June 2020, BuCor reported at least nine high-profile inmates dying one after another of COVID-19 infection at the sprawling prison complex in Muntinlupa City, prompting the NBI investigation.

On July 1, the NBI recommended murder charges against 22 members of the National Capital Region Police Office assigned at BuCor, who allegedly used COVID-19 to cover up the killings of eight NBP inmates.

The inmates were Francis Go (who died on May 28, 2020), Shuli Zhang (May 30, 2020), Jimmy Ang (June 1 , 2020), Eugene Chua (June 2, 2020), Benjamin Marcelo (June 2, 2020), Sherwin Sanchez (June 4, 2020), Amin Imam Boratong (June 5, 2020) and Willy Yang (June 17, 2020).

But in its 73-page investigation report, the NBI said the death of the ninth inmate, Sebastian, “bore none of the circumstances” found in the eight others, suggesting he died of illness.

According to Catapang, BuCor personnel and inmates later came forward to tell a different story after the suspension of BuCor Director General Gerald Bantag in October.

Catapang said BuCor was already talking to individuals who could corroborate the claim of inmate Rodel Tiaga that he witnessed how his fellow inmate Eugene Chua—a convicted drug lord—was killed at Site Harry in 2020.

“We already have leads that we could investigate, so we will be able to complete the story, and once and for all settle the issue: Were they killed or did they die due to COVID-19?” he added.

In a GMA News report, Tiaga, who was suspected to have caught COVID-19 in May 2020 and was assigned to work as an orderly at Site Harry, said Chua was killed by two people, one of them a medical front liner, by suffocating him with a plastic bag.

“One of them was holding a rope, while another one was holding the plastic bag. Then the plastic bag was put on to cover his face and they both pulled the rope until [Chua] fell unconscious in front of them,” he recalled.

Catapang said Tiaga and two other inmates had been taken into NBI custody for a case buildup.

Sebastian was a college dropout who served time for kidnapping for ransom and carjacking. He was detained in 2001 and became a ranking figure in the Sigue Sigue Commando gang at the Manila City Jail. Upon his conviction in 2009 and transfer to NBP’s maximum security compound, his notoriety grew.

Powerful gang leader

Sebastian’s name repeatedly cropped up during a congressional inquiry on the NBP drug trade that began in September 2016. He was described as a powerful gang leader feared by inmates.

Then Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and others claimed that Sebastian had wanted to monopolize the drug trade at NBP and colluded with De Lima in exchange for funding her senatorial candidacy.

In October 2016, Sebastian appeared at a House hearing and described how he became the “middleman” of Chinese drug lords and drug runners at NBP. He claimed that he gave P2 million to a security aide of De Lima purportedly for her electoral campaign.

Other witnesses, including former BuCor chief Rafael Ragos and confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa, have since recanted their statements against De Lima.

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—WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH