Rights body backs NBP reforms

Commission on Human Rights Chairwoman Loretta Ann Rosales. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is backing reforms in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) following the discovery of the lavish lifestyles and flourishing drug trade run by convicted wealthy drug lords.

CHR Chairperson Loretta Rosales said that “nothing less than a surgical operation” was needed to “totally destroy the drug trafficking network embedded in a web of corruption and payoffs institutionalized by historical government neglect.”

In a statement, Rosales urged stakeholders to isolate “once and for all the hardened criminals protected by, ironically, their confinement in the maximum security compound, and put a total stop to the syndicated crime of drug trafficking.”–Julie M. Aurelio