Video by Noy Morcoso lll/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines–Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, together with the House committee on justice, inspected anew the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) after a series of raids failed to stop drug operations inside the national penitentiary.
“We will not stop until the last contraband is taken out of the facility. That is the challenge,” De Lima told reporters on Tuesday.
The justice secretary said the “clearing operations” are immediate short-term solutions to the prison-based criminality, especially drug-related activities, inside the NBP.
De Lima was accompanied by Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas Jr., chair of the House committee on justice, Ilocos Norte Representative Rodolfo Fariñas, Akbayan party-list Representative Walden Bello and Bureau of Corrections Director Francis Jesus Bucayu.
“Rehabilitation (among inmates) would be difficult if we do not clean up the facility,” De Lima said.
On December 15, the National Bureau of Investigation seized illegal drugs and home items such as a bath tub and air-conditioning unit, flat screen television, play station, closed-circuit television, internet sticks, and drugs inside the national penitentiary.
A series of crackdowns initiated by the Department of Justice continued to yield contraband items inside the NBP.
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