LEILA de Lima made the National Bilibid Prison a “heaven for drug lords” who gave her P800,000 to P1 million in bribes in return when she was Justice secretary, Rep. Vicente Veloso said Sunday.
He told dzBB that the new revelation was contained in the “supplemental affidavit” submitted by former Bureau of Corrections chief and now National Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Rafael Ragos, who has been summoned to Monday’s hearing in the House.
Veloso, the vice chairman of the House committee on justice, said some inmates also shelled out P1 million for De Lima to obtain her “pardon” that never materialized.
He made his statement even as De Lima said President Rodrigo Duterte neglecting the country’s other pressing problems due to his obsession to destroy her.
“During the first 100 days they should have been aggressive and determined in other matters,” De Lima told reporters after a mass held for her by the La Sallian brothers at the De La Salle University.
“They have just been focused on the war on drugs. There are many pressing needs, pressing concerns like the economy, poverty and other things.”
But Veloso on Sunday disputed De Lima’s claims that Duterte was using the House probe to get back at her for initiating the Senate probe on extra-judicial killings allegedly being carried out on Duterte’s orders.
He said there was more than enough evidence to link De Lima to the trade on illegal drugs at the NBP when she was Justice secretary.
‘‘The maximum security compound, instead of being the most dreaded place at the NBP, was like heaven for the inmates during De Lima’s watch, Veloso said.
He recounted the previous testimony of high-value inmate and drug lord Herbert Colangco who testified that De Lima made the maximum security compound like “a little Las Vegas” due to the concerts being held there with De Lima’s imprimatur.
“P1 million was [Justice] Secretary De Lima’s cut from the P3-million income from the concert,” Colangco said.
He said the P1 million was on top of the P3 million monthly “PR payola” that he was transmitting to De Lima out of the illegal drug business.
Colangco, who owns Herbert C. Productions, said his talent manager Renante Diaz was the one turning over the cash to De Lima’s bagmen.
Kidnapping convict former Chief Inspector Rodolfo Magleo said De Lima made the illegal “shabu business” a legal business.
“De Lima made the Philippines the drug trade center. Taiwanese, Chinese, Malaysian and other foreign drug lords transacted business with Filipino drug lords,” Magleo said.
For every P1 million that De Lima received for every concert, Colangco said, he was allowed to bring in four 10-wheeler truckloads of beer in can, 30 golf carts, generators and other contraband.
“Of course I have to make money, too, because I am the one providing the capital. So out of the P3 million profit, I give P1 million to Secretary De Lima and I keep the P2 million,” Colangco said.
“I also brought in starlets and women that my talent manager paid P20,000 each but once inside the maximum security prison, their price tag went up to P75,000 each,” Colangco said.
“Drug lords and members of the drug syndicates can well afford them. In three hours, the 300 boxes of beer in can are gone.”
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said the inmates were doing their business using mobile phones, which cost P1 million each.