INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Monday ordered the relief of New Bilibid Prison (NBP) Chief Superintendent Ramon Reyes and other officials after last week’s grenade explosion inside the maximum security compound—an incident which, according to her, “compromised [their] reputation.”
Following a surprise visit to the blast site at the prison compound in Muntinlupa City, De Lima announced that she was placing Reyes and Superintendents Roberto Rabo, Dante Cruz and Gerardo Aro, heads of the maximum, medium and minimum security compounds, respectively, on floating status.
According to her, Reyes and the others would be replaced by junior officers whom she described as more “aggressive.” In the meantime, De Lima asked Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officer-in-charge Manuel Co to oversee the national penitentiary’s operations.
Reached for comment, Reyes said he had accepted the justice secretary’s decision and he and the other officials would not file an appeal. “If that is the discretion of our superior, we can do nothing about it,” he said.
Six prisoners out for a morning jog were injured on Friday after a still unidentified inmate lobbed a grenade at them.
De Lima told reporters that the incident was triggered by a rivalry between two gangs fighting over the protection of convicted drug lords detained in the facility.
“And since there have been many incidents here lately, we can fairly say that that some of them or if not many of them have been compromised,” she said, adding that it was also possible that out of fear, some officials did not want to undertake aggressive steps to counter “the drug problem from within the NBP.”
“We are talking here about drugs, we are talking about moneyed inmates, we are talking here about ‘powerful’ inmates who can compromise certain officials in BuCor,” De Lima said.
De Lima also said she would replace the guards at NBP, especially those manning the exits where weapons and even prostitutes were being smuggled inside the compound.
According to her, she would hire 117 guards to replace the old ones who would either be placed on floating status or removed altogether.
Their replacements, she added, would be trained on the “right values and attitude” toward their work.
The justice secretary said that the smuggling of a grenade and other deadly weapons inside the highly guarded compound remained a mystery to her as she ordered the conduct of a second raid following the first one, which took place after the blast.
Reyes earlier claimed that despite their intensified operations against contraband, inmates still managed to sneak weapons into the prison by “conspiring and bribing” some jail employees.
“There are really some employees who would grant a request in exchange for money but the majority of our officers here are hardworking and honest,” he said.
Reyes also noted that they have done their best to beef up security at the facility through more thorough body searches and stricter inspection guidelines.
Originally posted at 11:35 am | Monday, Nov. 19, 2012