Bilibid inspection yields illegal drugs, gadgets, bath tub

By: Tetch Torres-Tupas - 10 years ago

New Bilibid Prison. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—A surprise inspection of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) early Monday morning has yielded drugs and gadgets, sex dolls and pornographic CDs, and even a bath tub and a game console.

Operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP), together with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, carried out the inspection as part of the crackdown against illegal drugs inside the jail facility.

The operatives also seized home items such as air-conditioning units, 48-inch flat screen television set, PlayStation 4, dining sets, closed-circuit television (CCTV), signal jammer, Internet broadband sticks, several firearms, P175,000 and at least $2,000 in cash.

“Certainly, heads will roll. Lalo na ngayon. Pero ayaw ko muna sabihin ano ang nasa isipan ko at ano ang irerekomenda ko sa Pangulo na aksyon dahil gusto ko muna makuha yung buong report,” De Lima told reporters Monday.

De Lima was accompanied by more than a hundred heavily armed agents of the NBI, PNP-Special Action Force and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

The inspection was conducted inside the NBP maximum security compound where 20 convicted drug lords are incarcerated following reports that they are still able to continue their illegal trade even inside the national penitentiary.

De Lima said the 20 convicted drug lords will be moved from the BuCor facility to “incapacitate” the drug syndicate from continuing their operation while investigations are continuing.

“This is to completely incapacitate them from pursuing their illegal transactions,” De Lima said, adding that the 20 inmates will be secured by an elite team from the BuCor and the PNP-SAF to ensure that they cannot escape and contact their accomplices outside.

Their visiting privileges were also suspended.

Though she did not identify the inmates, De Lima said majority were Chinese nationals.

“Mayroon ding mga Filipino pero karamihan ay mga Chinese nationals,” she said.

In a related development, De Lima said she has given the NBP and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) until this weekend to demolish the inmates’ “kubols.”

De Lima said papers with names and corresponding amounts were recovered inside the cell or “kubol” of convicted drug lord Peter Co.

“Two or three months in the work ito bago natin isinagawa kanina. Intelligence confirmed that a significant source of illegal drugs in the country came from the illegal drug syndicate operating in the NBP,” De Lima said.

Earlier, De Lima said BuCor officials have received death threats following their crackdown against drug operations inside Bilibid. The BuCor operates Bilibid and six other prison facilities in the country.

“Nakumpirma ang matagal ng binabalita na may mga special kubol sila dito in the sense na luxurious talaga makikita mo, may mga television set, may aircon pa,” De Lima said, adding that she was disgusted with the discovery.

“Magugulat ka talaga sa mga nakita kanina sa mga kubol. I am disgusted, even beyond disgusted,” she said.

The operation came after De Lima launched last Friday the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act No. 10575 or the Bureau of Corrections Modernization Act of 2013.

Last month, authorities also confiscated from the cells of the convicted drug lords 11 signal boosters, four booster chargers, 46 aluminum outdoor antennas, four Wifi sticks, four Wifi antennas, nine repeaters, five rolls of electrical wires, one splitter, one distributor and seven units of power supply charger.