Robin Padilla wants deeper probe into ‘septic tank horrors’ inside Bilibid

Sen. Robin Padilla speaks during one of the Senate hearings in this photo taken on Sept. 5, 2023. Senate PRIB file photo / Bibo Nueva España

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Robinhood Padilla said the upper chamber should still “give a push to investigate septic tanks” inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), saying there had been long-circulating tales of horror behind the jail facility’s sewage tanks.

“Yan po ay matagal nang usap-usapan sa NBP, talagang ang septic tank may pagka-horror yan. Kaya mas maganda kung bibigyan nyo ng permiso na magkaroon ng imbestigasyon diyan. Kaya po sana sa tulong ng [University of the Philippines] malaman natin talaga kung meron ba talaga [ng remains].  Matagal nang kwento yan sa Bilibid, na doon talaga ang disposal,” Padilla said a public hearing headed by the Senate committee on justice and human rights held Thursday.

(That’s been talked about for a long time in the NBP. The septic tank is really a tale of horror. So it would be better if you give permission to have an investigation on that. I hope with the help of UP, we discover if it is really true that there are remains. It has been a story for a long time in Bilibid, that the disposal is really there.)

This comes after UP Forensic Anthropologist Nestor Castro disclosed that one septic tank inside the NBP yielded no human remains upon thorough investigation.

“We were contacted by BuCor Director General [Gregorio] Catapang Jr. to check the septic tank for human remains. Based on our findings, there is none. There are no human remains, whether bone or other human remains, in one septic tank,” said Castro in a mix of English and Filipino.

According to Castro, the tests were conducted on the septic tank under a basketball court inside the NBP.

“Bale dalawa na septic tanks ang titignan sana, pero inubos yung [oras] doon sa first septic tank,” Castro added.

(The plan was to look at two septic tanks, but all the time was used up in checking the first septic tank.)

Earlier, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) bared that a bone was found inside a septic tank at NBP, but the bureau also disclosed that it was not of human origin as it is consistent with a chicken leg bone.

The controversy surrounding NBP’s sewers was fueled by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla’s statement that there could be more than two mass graves inside the NBP premises.

This, after the authorities presumed that an inmate’s remains were found in one of the septic tanks inside the New Bilibid Prison’s maximum security compound.

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JPV