A LAWMAKER over the weekend called for the mass resignation of all prison guards and officials of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), following the reported construction of luxurious villas of the drug lords in the area.
Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian of Valenzuela City also urged Justice Secretary Leila M. de Lima to create a special body that will investigate the NBP mess.
Gatchalian said the NBP scandal is not only embarassing to the government, but “a total insult to the country’s judicial system.”
“How can this happen under the nose of the NBP management for years? This is totally unacceptable and all NBP personnel—from top to bottom—should resign immediately,” the lawmaker added.
Gatchalian said: “Everybody in the NBP should file their courtesy resignation to give the DOJ [Department of Justice] a freehand in replacing discredited and ineffective personnel. An independent body should also be set up to investigate all the jail guards and prison officials, and the guilty ones should be charged in court and sent to jail.”
He said the imprisoned very important prisoners, could not have built their luxurious and state-of-the art kubols without the knowledge and explicit permission from officials of the NBP and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).
“The NBP functions like a police force, where the chain of command is being implemented and followed. This means that the lowly prison guards get orders from their superior officers, who, in turn, get their orders from the NBP director and, ultimately from officials of the BuCor,” Gatchalian said.
Gatchalian said NBP and the BuCor officials cannot escape from this “chain of command,” meaning the entire NBP officialdom is liable for the breakdown of order and discipline among prisoners, particularly those detained in the maximum security compound, where the luxurious kubols equipped with appliances were discovered this week by de Lima.
He said the luxurious villas of the drug lords are far more extravagant than the kubol of former congressman Romeo Jalosjos, which was exposed years ago.
“And the most shocking part of it is the discovery of high-powered firearms in the possession of convicted drug traffickers, who can even start a violent prison riot,” he said.
Gatchalian said the serious breach of order and security in the NBP calls for a total cleansing of the national penitentiary, which means that all the prison guards and officials of NBP has to go, with the guilty ones being criminally charged in court.
He also proposed that soldiers from the Armed Forces be tapped for prison-guard duties at the NBP until such time that the DOJ and the BuCor have recruited enough prison guards, who will replace the sacked NBP personnel.
He said the House justice committee will resume next month its NBP investigation, in which officials of the DOJ and the BuCor will be summoned to explain why anomalies in the NBP maximum security compound have worsened, even after these were exposed in the 2011 probe of the special privileges accorded to former Batangas Gov. Antonio Leviste.