More Bilibid inmates sue DOJ over transfer

MANILA, Philippines—Relatives of two more prominent inmates transferred last week from New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Manila on Tuesday asked the Court of Appeals to order the government to give them access to their families and counsels.

Shiela May Naga, common-law wife of convicted drug trafficker Willie Sy filed through lawyer Ferdinand Topacio a petition for the issuance of a writ of amparo and temporary protection order for her husband, naming Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila de Lima, NBI director Virgilio Mendez and Bureau of Corrections director Franklin Bucayu as respondents.

Naga described as “baseless” De Lima’s public declarations that Sy and other transferred convicts were operating an illegal drug trade behind bars. Sy was convicted by a Quezon City court in December 2009 for a drug-related offense. His case is on appeal.

De Lima, in an ambush interview, insisted that the DOJ had legal basis to transfer the convicts after they were caught living a luxurious lifestyle at the state penitentiary and alleged evidence were obtained indicating they were operating an illegal drug operations from behind bars.

“How can that (transfer) be illegal when the administration of the correctional system is under the DOJ and we have enough prerogatives and powers to fulfill our mandate? I don’t want yet to debate with them publicly because there are ongoing operations,” she said.

“We are confident that there is enough basis for the actions taken. This is an exceptional situation; it’s somewhat an emergency situation because of all those information and reports, include intelligence reports we have been receiving the past months. So we need to take really a decisive action to remedy the situation,” she said.

The transfer and visitation restrictions, De Lima said, were meant “to ensure that they are completely incapacitated from committing further criminal activities and to totally cut them off from their criminal network.”

For Naga, however, De Lima’s pronouncements threatened the life of Sy so he needed a lawyer to “explain to him his present condition and predicaments.”

Topacio said a relative of convict Willie Ong also filed a similar case, but the media has yet to get hold of the document. The sister of another transferred inmate, Noel Martinez, also a client of Topacio’s filed a similar case Monday.