Surprise big-time Bilibid raid yields only 7 phones

MANILA, Philippines — Despite the presence of over 5,000 officers from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) and several hundred more from other agencies, authorities found only seven cell phones during a surprise raid on Monday at New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City.

“Maybe they [inmates] got scared because of the 5,000 officers of the NCRPO,”said Bureau of Corrections director general Gerald Bantag.

But NCRPO chief Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas said it was possible that an insider might have tipped off the prisoners.

“It’s hard to keep operations as big as this [a secret] … but [at least], we disrupted the normal course of illegal transactions here,”he added.

According to Sinas, they managed to get only seven cell phones over the five-hour-long “Oplan Greyhound”operations conducted in six buildings within the maximum security compound.

The figure was a big decline from the 1,634 cell phones seized in several raids conducted between October and November last year when Bantag ordered the demolition of illegal structures in the area.

In yesterday’s raid, the cells of high-profile inmates were the first to be inspected but no contraband was found there.

A search of other cells yielded appliances such as television sets, electric fans and gas stoves. There were also bladed and blunt objects like hammers, saws, scissors and improvised kitchen knives but no drugs.

Unlike previous raids where authorities found the cell phones inside cells, the gadgets were found in unlikely places.

“Some of them were dug up in the ground along with plants; others were found inside trash bins,” Sinas said.

“Two cell phones were even found in the bottom of mini drums filled with water. The cell phones were covered in plastic so they did not get wet,”he added.