Sebastian set to sue De Lima

Sen. Leila de Lima’s supposed informant in the national penitentiary, convicted kidnapper Jaybee Sebastian, is filing a criminal complaint against her for allegedly endangering his life.

Sebastian, 36, was poised to file the case today in the Office of the Ombudsman against De Lima for graft, torture and conduct unbecoming a public official for her failure to move him to a secure cell that led to his near fatal stabbing at New Bilibid Prison (NBP) on Sept. 28. One inmate was killed and three other were wounded in that incident.

The 18-page complaint was set to be filed yesterday by Sebastian’s wife, Roxanne, on her husband’s behalf, but she failed to show up.

The document would have to be notarized today before it could be docketed, the couple’s lawyer, Eduardo Arriba, told reporters.

Also named respondents were Bureau of Corrections Director General Ricardo Rainier Cruz and former NBP Superintendent Richard Schwarzkopf, Jr.

Arriba said De Lima’s announcement on Sept. 22 that Sebastian was a government asset when she was justice secretary had led to last week’s stabbing incident.

De Lima led a raid on NBP in December 2014, which uncovered illegal drugs and other contraband in lavishly furnished cells of high-profile inmates.

Following the raid, 19 convicted  drug lords who had purportedly turned NBP into the center of a multibillion drug trade were transferred to the National Bureau of Investigation detention center.

Congressional hearing

In the two-day congressional hearing on illegal drug activities in NBP earlier last month, some of the inmates said that Sebastian was left in the national penitentiary to allow him to control the drug trade there and raise funds for De Lima’s senatorial candidacy in May.

De Lima, who has been in the cross-hairs of the Duterte administration for her criticism of its bloody war against drugs, has denied the charge.

She said Sebastian was a government asset in her efforts to clean up NBP. Her remarks angered the inmates and prompted the attack on Sebastian, Arriba said.

“The threats became a reality on Sept. 28,” Arriba said, referring to the stabbing incident.

“Why only now?” De Lima said at a news conference. She said she suspected that Sebastian must have been coerced, just like the other inmates, to speak against her.

Sebastian said he earned his fellow convicts’ ire following raids on NBP beginning December 2014. Eight months later, the 19 convicts were returned to  NBP, along with Sebastian.

Sebastian had opposed the transfer, saying this was like “feeding him to the lions.”

Instead he was placed in solitary confinement, describing this as torture under local and international laws.  —WITH A REPORT FROM JAYMEE T. GAMIL