SAF men seize P500-K shabu from Bilibid guard

Prison Guard 1 Ernesto Dionglay Jr. being booked for a charge of illegal drugs possession in Muntinlupa police, after SAF guards seized around 100 grams of suspected shabu under his pants during an inspection at the employees’ gate of the maximum security compound of New Bilibid Prison. Photos courtesy of Muntinlupa police

Elite troopers of the Philippine National Police – Special Action Force seized a plastic bag of shabu from a prison guard of the Bureau of Corrections on Thursday, a week after authorities conducted a raid amid the resurgence of drug trade in the national penitentiary.

Muntinlupa police chief Senior Supt. Dante Novicio, quoting SAF police, said 100 grams of shabu, or crystal meth, was found in a plastic bag hidden inside the underwear of Prison Guard 1 Ernesto Dionglay during a body inspection.

Dionglay was about to start his shift around 9 a.m. when SAF guards stopped him at employees’ gate of the maximum security compound of the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa for routinary inspection.

The 34-year-old prison guard, however, resisted being inspected and tried to run away to a place not seen by the closed-circuit television cameras.

Novicio said Dionglay would most likely to pass the shabu to the other prisoners for them to sell it. Dionglay admitted he would be using the money for his pregnant wife.

Senior Insp. Elvin John Tio, the head of Muntinlupa police Station Drug Enforcement Unit, said the seized shabu has an estimated street value of around P500,000, but inflates to 50 to 100 times the original price when it reaches the heavily-guarded Bilibid.

Tio claimed Dionglay was part of a “syndicate delivering drugs in Bilibid.” He said the other BuCor guards who had passed the inspection started “harrassing” the SAF group guarding the gate to maximum security compound.

During his talk with Dionglay, Tio said the prison guard refused to say the source of the shabu, and even claimed that he did not know how the contraband got under his pants.

Dionglay, who has been a BuCor employee for 10 years, is currently detained at Muntinlupa police detention, while being placed in inquest for a charge of illegal drugs posession.

The BuCor guard’s arrest comes a week after Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, PNP chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and SAF chief Director Benjamin Lusad themselves conducted a raid in the medium and maximum security compound, and Building 14 that houses high-profile prisoners, after reports that the drug trade in Bilibid has returned.

Aguirre also announced that he would be supervising the BuCor, which oversees Bilibid, after its director Benjamin de Los Santos resigned from his post.

In a previous interview, De los Santos told the Inquirer that they were investigating the involvement of BuCor and SAF members in the proliferation of illegal drugs in Bilibid. JE