MANILA, Philippines – Previously influential convicts now detained incommunicado at the National Bureau of Investigation on orders from Justice Secretary Leila de Lima are so desperate for outside contact they are willing to pay up to P50,000 for a five-minute phone call, according to an NBI official.
“It has come to our attention that the high profile inmates tried to bribe their guards as much as P50,000 to use their cell phones. They are desperate to make outside contact, ” the NBI senior agent told the Inquirer on condition of anonymity for lack of authority to talk to reporters.
The NBI source said also that the inmates, who had previously enjoyed preferential and even posh treatment at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa, had initially rejected rationed meals from the NBI canteen served to all detainees at the NBI jail.
“The high-profile inmates refused to eat the rationed food and instead asked one of the Bureau of Corrections guards to buy them fast food like KFC, Yellow Cab and Shakey’s,” the official said.
The National Bureau of Investigation. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
He said that as a precautionary measure, guards assigned to the 20 inmates from the National Bilibid Prison are no longer allowed to carry cell phones or even just pens and paper lest these find their way to the inmates.
“The measure is to ensure that high-profile inmates could not bribe the guards whether from the BuCor or the NBI guards,” the official said.
The official also disclosed that they had denied a request by convicted bank robber Herbert Colangco that members of his band be allowed to enter the NBI jail facility for a mini concert on Christmas Eve.
“Colangco’s reason was he wanted to serenade other prisoners at the jail for the Christmas Eve,” the official said, adding that the band members had actually arrived at the NBI compound but left after three hours.
The official said the NBP inmates remained incommunicado and were not allowed to accept visitors, not even their lawyers, and not even on Christmas Day.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima had earlier said that the drug convicts removed from the maximum compound of the NBP would be held incommunicado temporarily.
“The instruction of the SOJ remains the same. No visitors allowed, including lawyers of the inmates transferred from NBP,” the senior agent said.
He said security had been increased around the NBI headquarters in the wake of talk of a possible jailbreak to be to be executed by mercenaries.
He said additional platoons from the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force were deployed on Christmas Eve at the NBI compound.
“There are reports of as much as P50 million for each drug convict to a group that could set them free from the NBI jail,” the senior agent said.
The source also said that a religious leader who styles himself as Bishop Ephraim Perez of Christian Catholic Church had requested to see Eugene Chua, one of the drug convicts, but his request had been denied.
Perez, according to the official, wanted to personally talk to Chua and then asked if he could say Mass for all the inmates inside the NBI compound.
Perez, however, denied going to the NBI to ask to talk to Chua.
“I did not go to the NBI and I do not know Chua,” Perez told the Inquirer in a telephone interview. “My schedule for Mass is full. I could not say Mass for them during Christmas.”
A sister of Noel Martinez, one of the inmates transferred from the NBP maximum compound, recently filed a petition in the Court of Appeals questioning the transfer Martinez.
De Lima had said that a court order was not needed to transfer the convicts to the NBI since they had lost their civil and political rights and were under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Corrections, which runs the NBP.
She also said the NBI detention center was an extension of the NBP, the BuCor and NBI both being DOJ agencies.
More than a week ago, De Lima led the two raids on the special quarters of the 20 inmates inside the NBP compound in search of evidence of their illegal drug trade from the state penitentiary.
On the first raid, seized from the luxurious quarters of inmates were expensive watches, such as a diamond-studded Patek Philippe, Rolex , wads of cash, a sex doll, a Jacuzzi, a sauna, wide-screen television sets, Wi-Fi and split-type air-conditioning units, a power generator, and a music studio with top-of-the-line equipment.
Also found were bags and sachets of white powder believed to shabu totaling more than P2 million.
Removed from the NBP compound and transferred to the NBI headquarters in Manila were Eugene Chua, Sam Li Chua, Vicente Sy, George Sy, Tony Co, Joel Capones, Herbert Colangco, Peter Co, Imam Boratong, Clarence Domingo, Tom Chua, Rommel Capones, Jojo Baligad, Willy Chua, Michael Ong, Jacky King, Willy Sy, Noel Martinez and Dona Agojo.