TWO days after marathon hearings and despite the vehement denial of Senator Leila de Lima, lawmakers said they were convinced the illegal drug trade thrived with the imprimatur of public officials inside and outside the National Bilibid Prison during De Lima’s stint as Justice secretary.
For this reason, the lawmakers decided to expand their probe to cover all penal colonies and correctional facilities where they believe the illegal drug trade also exists.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said testimony from Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Deputy Chief for Operations Director Benjamin Magalong made his case versus De Lima an airtight case.
“Over these two days, we have been regaled with accounts over how inmates, with the collusion of some public officials, have been able to operate the illegal drug trade. Through testimonies and videos, we have been given the inside story on the ways of the illegal drug business that has thrived inside the NBP,” said Misamis Occidental Rep. Henry Oaminal, vice chairman of the House committee on justice in charge of correctional reforms.
“Our concern is on how we can eliminate this dastardly phenomenon of unscrupulous individuals and groups taking over a government institution and treating it as their fiefdom,” Oaminal said.
House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, principal author of House Resolution 105 that sought the probe on proliferation of drugs during the stint of De Lima as Department of Justice chief, said the House will leave it up to the DoJ under Aguirre to file appropriate charges against those accountable for the thriving of the drug trade inside the maximum security sector in NBP.
“It pains [me] to know when a colleague in government service [is] in trouble, but we have to stop this drug menace for the future of our next generation,” Alvarez said on reported threats and bashing received by De Lima as a result of the ongoing House probe.
“My mission is to help President Duterte win our war against illegal drugs and criminalities, regardless who gets hurt in the process. Para ito sa bayan! (This is for the country!)” the Speaker said.
“It is also not a stretch of logic to deduce that if the illegal drug trade is able to exist inside the NBP, it also exists in other correctional facilities that fall under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology as well as our local governments,” Oaminal said.
“Thus, the subcommittee on correctional reforms will call for further investigations to discover how far and how deeply the blight of illegal drugs has spread in our prisons,” Oaminal said.
All witnesses–represented accordingly by their respective counsels––implicated De Lima in the proliferation of drug trade in the NBP.
Before the House hearings, De Lima was repeatedly identified by President Rodrigo Duterte in various speeches as part of the matrix of people involved in the illegal drug trade.
During the hearing, the DoJ presented nine witnesses–drug lord Herbert Colanggo, Rodolfo Magleo, Rafael Ragos, Jovencio Ablen Jr., Noel Martinez, Jaime Patcho, Jojo Baligad, Froilan Trestiza, and Hans Anton Tan.
They were accorded immunity and placed under the Witness Protection Program (WPP) upon their request that was duly approved by Alvarez.
The witnesses also testified that drug lord Jaybee Sebastian forced other inmates to raise funds for De Lima’s 2016 senatorial bid and how those who cooperated in the drug syndicate were given “special privileges” and those who did not, were transferred to other penal colonies.
They also said De Lima and some Bureau of Corrections officials allegedly maneuvered the transfer of certain inmates, also known as the Bilibid 19, to the NBI detention center for non-cooperation and to favor Sebastian to control the drug trade after the competitors had been isolated.
They also noted De Lima’s constant presence in the NBP, particularly at Sebastian’s “kubol” or hut, which allegedly rendered Sebastian “invincible” to both the inmates and NBP personnel, and made his word the law.
The testimony was corroborated when Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas of Ilocos Norte summoned Magalong to shed light on how a raid that the police had planned was scrubbed in favor of one executed by the Justice Department and the NBI to protect Sebastian.
But House Deputy Minority Leader Harry Roque called the committee’s attention to criticism that the House investigation was a case of political persecution that targeted President Rodrigo Duterte’s enemy, De Lima.
Umali, however, denied the suggestion, or suggestions that the hearing were being directed by the Justice secretary, saying there was a precedent for having a Cabinet official question witnesses at a congressional hearing.