House to probe link between NBP gangs, drug lords

MANILA, Philippines–Is there an unholy alliance between prison gangs and drug lords serving time at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP)?

Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., chair of the House committee on justice, is convinced that there is and wants to conduct an investigation into the matter.

“There appears to be a collusion between the drug lords and prison gangs which we have to end,” he told the Inquirer on Monday.

In line with this, Tupas said that his committee would inspect facilities and conditions inside the national penitentiary on Tuesday, its second in three months.

“We hope to achieve long-term reforms in our prison system and to investigate recent incidents inside the NBP,” he added in a text message.

Tupas noted that based on the first inspection they conducted in October and the recent incidents at the NBP such as the confiscation of guns, cash and other luxury items from the quarters of some drug lords and a grenade explosion believed to be the handiwork of a prison gang, there was connivance between the two groups.

Even Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said that Bureau of Corrections officials were under siege as criminal elements remained influential inside the NBP despite the series of raids conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation in the past few weeks.

A lawmaker who refused to be named said that convicted drug lords had apparently been able to continue their illegal operations from behind bars with the help of prison gangs.

According to the source, the drug lords used the gangs not only for protection but also to carry out “dirty jobs” like intimidating or eliminating their rivals in the drug trade.

A raid conducted by authorities on Dec. 15 inside the maximum security compound led to the discovery of luxury items, including a Jacuzzi and air-conditioning units, in the “kubol,” or private quarters, of some so-called VIP prisoners.

This resulted in the transfer of 19 high-profile inmates, some of them drug lords, to the NBI. On Jan. 8, a grenade went off inside the NBP’s maximum security compound near a building that housed members of the Commando Gang.

The blast, which killed an inmate and injured 19 others, allegedly targeted the gang leader, JB Sebastian, who was unhurt.

De Lima said that some of the inmates transferred to the NBI believed that Sebastian had tipped off authorities to the contraband and luxury items found in their quarters.

A confidential report shown to the Inquirer about illegal activities inside the NBP, however, named Sebastian’s group as the protector of convicted drug lord Peter Co, one of those transferred to the NBI. The same report also stated that Sebastian was being used by drug lords to eliminate distributors who failed to remit proceeds from drug sales inside and outside the national penitentiary.