INMATE Jaybee Sebastian used his connection with former Justice secretary Leila de Lima to wield power inside the New Bilibid Prison, a witness told the House committee on justice, which is investigating the proliferation of illegal drugs in the national penitentiary.
Nonito Arile, a former police officer, said Sebastian was known to be “untouchable” and powerful at the NBP.
“This is because he [Sebastian] gives a huge amount of money on a regular basis to former Justice secretary Leila de Lima… and Director [Franklin] Bucayu ng Bureau of Corrections,” the inmate Arile said in his sworn statement, which he read before the House panel.
Arile said he knew that Sebastian was raising money for De Lima when he talked to him about it.
In the course of their discussion, Arile said Sebastian also mentioned the imminent transfer of inmates who were also allegedly operating their own drug businesses inside the NBP.
“Jaybee also boasted about the imminent transfer of inmates whom he considered as competitors in the illegal drug trade operations inside Bilibid because he [Jaybee] is an asset of De Lima. He planned all these things because he was promised an absolute pardon by Secretary De Lima as she claimed she was trying to lobby [for this with] President Aquino,” said Arile, a murder and kidnapping convict.
Arile said he was convinced about Sebastian’s influence at the NBP when high-profile inmates—the so-called “Bilibid 19”—were moved out of the maximum security compound following a raid led by De Lima and agents from the National Bureau of Investigation in December 2014.
Arile also disclosed he managed to get hold of the Banco de Oro account number where Sebastian’s earnings from the drug trade were allegedly deposited. He said the account number was under the account name “Coco Jewelry Shop.”
Three weeks before the raid in 2014, Arile said he saw P65 million in cash kept inside a cigarette box inside the huts of inmate Sam Li Chua. But after the raid, jewelry, guns and luxury items which valued at P300,000 were lost, as reported in the news.
This prompted him to write a letter to President Rodrigo Duterte and Philippine National Police chief Director General Roland dela Rosa dated August 2016.
A former close-in security aide of De Lima, meanwhile confirmed the rumored romantic relationship between her and her former driver-bodyguard, Ronnie Dayan, and the existence of a sex video.
Joenel Sanchez, a member of the Presidential Security Group, also read his affidavit before the House panel.
Sanchez said there were several instances that could prove that De Lima and her driver were in a relationship, such as when Dayan was staying over at De Lima’s house, or when they slept in one room during their out-of-town trips.
Sanchez also said it was De Lima who bought Dayan’s ‘personal’ items, or even liquor and cigarettes.
Sanchez also said he was able watch the alleged sex video of De Lima and Dayan. He said sometime in 2012, he was approached by De Lima’s driver, a certain “Bantam,” who turned out to have in his possession Dayan’s phone, which contained the two alleged sex videos.
Sanchez said he was surprised at seeing a video of De Lima and Dayan in which she was performing oral sex.
“The video became a joke for us,” he said in Filipino.
Sanchez also said that in 2015, a Metro Manila Development Authority rider named Warren Cristobal was added to De Lima’s security detail. He said Dayan got jealous of Cristobal, and later on, De Lima fired Dayan.
Sanchez said after that, he noticed De Lima became close to Cristobal, which led him to suspect that they had a special relationship.
At the same hearing, former police officer Engelberto Durano said slain drug lord Jeffrey Diaz alias “Jaguar” gave P1.5 million to De Lima, and said Dayan, who served also as De Lima’s bagman, offered to protect Diaz’s business inside the NBP.
Durano recalled that Diaz was the first one who wanted to give protection money to Dayan in January 2014. A month later, he said Diaz called him up and asked him to coordinate with Dayan’s business associate Joenel Pederio, who allegedly owned a shabu market in Zamboanga Del Norte.
In February 2014, Dayan got P27.3 million from Jaguar through three Banco De Oro bank accounts.
Sometime in November and December 2014, Durano said Diaz again called him up and asked him to prepare P1.5 million–the amount that was delivered De Lima in a shoe box, wrapped as gift.
Durano said they delivered the gift to De Lima at the Bilibid TV Channel 3 (BTV-3) office which served as office of Sebastian.
“I gave De Lima the box containing P1.5 million and said, ‘Ma’am, this is it.’ Secretary De Lima received it and handed it over to the man who met with me,” Durano said.
Upon leaving, Durano said he looked back and saw De Lima walk toward a nearby pole as if trying to seduce Sebastian.
“As I walked away from them, I looked back at Secretary De Lima and saw she was walking like a model towards the metal pole in the middle of the BTV-3, then she held the pole and her scarf and said, ‘Is this okay, Jaybee?’” Durano said.
Durano told the House panel he was disgusted upon seeing De Lima act this way, and called her the Visayan term for a “flirtatious old person.”
In a press conference at the House Thursday, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguire II said his department would file airtight cases against De Lima “soon,” noting they still needed a report from the Anti-Money Laundering Council on bank accounts allegedly connected to the drug money that De Lima had allegedly collected.
Former Bureau of Corrections director Franklin Jesus Bucayu, meanwhile, admitted he had kept the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in the dark when he withheld the information on the controversial raid inside the New Bilibid Prison in December 2014.
Testifying before the House committee on justice , Bucayu said De Lima had prevented him from informing the CIDG about the planned raid.
“In one of the [inter-agency] meetings, I asked [De Lima] if we’re going to inform CIDG about the plan [raid]. She said, no need,” Bucayu told the House justice panel.
He said it seemed to him at the time that there was already prior coordination with the National Bureau of Investigation, and that there was no need to bring in another investigative unit.
In earlier testimony on Sept. 21, PNP-CIDG chief Benjamin Magalong said that Bucayu halted the original plan of his unit to conduct a raid at the NBP in 2014.
He said the PNP-CIDG should have conducted the operation.
Magalong said that the original plan was to carry out a raid in the NBP in coordination with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, International Security Assistance Force and the NBI.
Magalong said De Lima and then Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II knew about the plan.
Former Justice undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, meanwhile, has left the country before the House of Representative could summon him to a hearing.
Baraan’s son and namesake Francis Baraan IV revealed that his father flew to the United States for medical purposes and not to avoid the House inquiry into the drug controversy.
“My father, former Justice undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, left the country for health and medical reasons, on Aug. 25, 2016, which is many days before the House of Representatives began its probe on the alleged drug trade in Bilibid, and days before President Duterte himself tagged him in his drug matrix, in one of his press cons,” he said in a statement.
Francis said that his father left the country without knowing that he would be summoned to a House inquiry.
“Rest assured, he isn’t running away from anything, or avoiding any possible prosecution. He would face all allegation against him in a real court of law–not in a court of ‘trial by publicity’ – if and when somebody actually files a formal complaint against him,” Francis said.
On Thursday, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez granted immunity to Arile and Durano.
However, Alvarez declined to give immunity to De Lima’s alleged bagmen Sanchez and Dayan.
The justice panel, chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali rejected a request to grant immunity to Senior Supt. Jerry Valeroso.
Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop tagged Valeroso’s testimony as mere hearsay as it was provided by an “informal asset.”
“He cannot get government protection under Section 3 of the the law that created the Witness Protection Program,” Acop said.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, for his part, rejected the granting of immunity to Marine Lt. Col. Ferdinand Marcelino, saying the latter’s testimony might affect his pending criminal case with the Justice Department.
Sebastian, who was wounded during a prison riot earlier, did not show up at the House hearing.
Aguirre said a medical certificate was issued by Sebastian’s doctor because he is still not fit to travel. – With Rey E. Requejo