De Lima says Bilibid ‘riot’ could be Palace ‘scare tactic’

Jaybee Sebastian (left) and Sen. Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILES

Senator  Leila de Lima said the so-called “riot” at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) could be Malacanang’s way of scaring possible witnesses against her as part of its supposed “tele-serye” drama to project her as the “Bilibid  Drug Queen.”

De Lima  said threatening prisoners with violence and  murder  was “the height of Mafia tactics and gangster-style operations that make this  government worse than a narco-state.”

“The official version of the DOJ (Department of Justice) is that this was a riot. Absent any other available reliable  information, I am not discounting the fact that this is another way of   the government ‘persuading’ the  Bilibid 19 to testify against me and this   incident should serve as a lesson to those who refuse to cooperate with the government and do Aguirre’s and Malacanang’s bidding,”  she said at a press conference on  Wednesday.

Aguirre is  DOJ Secretary  Vitaliano Aguirre II.

“If this is the case, this means we have reached a new level of  murderous policy in this government,”  she said.

“I am not discounting the possibility that this so-called riot is Malacanang’s way of sending its messages to prisoners who refuse to implicate me in the Bilibid drug trade as part of Aguirre’s and Malacanang tele-seryedrama projecting me as the Bilibid Drug Queen,”  the senator added.

The  riot  at the NBP early Wednesday morning  left high-profile inmate Tony Co  dead, and three other prisoners — Jaybee Sebastian, Peter Co, and Vicente Sy — hurt.  

READ: De Lima Bilibid ‘asset’ hurt in riot; high-profile inmate killed

De Lima earlier  admitted   that   Sebastian, who is  being linked to her, was used as a government asset when she was still the Justice secretary during the Aquino administration.  

READ: De Lima says Sebastian a gov’t asset, OK if he testifies

If her suspicions were true,  the senator  then  appealed to Malacanang to stop “these tragic, desperate, and despicable actions.”

“These prisoners are supposed to be under the  government’s protection. To threaten them with violence and  murder simply because they refuse to be used  in  the ongoing House hearing is the height of Mafia tactics  and gangster-style operations that make this  government worse than a narco-state,” De Lima said.

Some high-profile inmates have already testified at the House of Representatives, linking De Lima in the  illegal drug trade at the NBP during  her time as Justice secretary. The  senator had repeatedly denied the allegations.

“It makes this government an assassin-state, a state that promotes murder and summary execution as policy and  as weapon  against its perceived enemies,” she said. CDG