Lacson to Dela Rosa: stop Bilibid drug trade

If newly appointed Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa can stop convicted drug lords from doing business from inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), then this will have a big impact in the government’s war on drugs, Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said on Sunday.

Lacson said this was the new challenge for Dela Rosa, who retired from the top Philippine National Police post last week.

A former PNP chief himself, Lacson said that the illegal drug trade in the country was being run by convicted drug lords from inside their cells in the NBP.

Monitor jail guards

He said that there was a need to strictly monitor the jail guards inside the NBP because the convicted drug lords would not be able to operate their business from inside without the connivance of jail guards.

Lacson said he heard that these convicts paid as much as P100,000 to the jail guards for the use of “high-end” cell phones which were smuggled in by their visitors but allowed by the guards.

That was why he said Dela Rosa had a big role to play as BuCor director.

“So once Bato solves the drug problem inside Muntinlupa, meaning not the problem of people there doing drugs but those directing [the drug trade outside] … that will have a large impact in our antidrug operation outside [NBP],” Lacson said in a radio program.

Great passion

Lacson said that Dela Rosa had great passion in fighting the illegal drug trade and this could constitute 10 percent in fighting the problem, while the bulk, or 90 percent, depended on how he would
implement his mission.

“How he does it is another matter,” he said of Dela Rosa.

Lacson recalled that former BuCor chief Franklin Bucayu had confided to him before he resigned that he was quitting because it was not only his own security that he was worried about but also that of his family.