New Bilibid Prison officials on Tuesday dismissed the reported meeting involving drug lords inside the facility and the alleged P50-million assassination plot against President-elect Rodrigo Duterte and incoming National Police chief Ronald Dela Rosa.
NBP spokesman Msgr. Bobby Olaguer said he and other officials in the facility were not aware of the reported meeting and the plot to kill Duterte and Dela Rosa because of their campaign against illegal drugs.
Olaguer expressed belief that Dela Rosa could have been fed with the wrong information.
“It is possible he [Dela Rosa] has an insider [inmate] who gives him information but you can’t be so sure if this information is true,” he said.
Olaguer said even the PNP intelligence unit is finding it hard to check and verify the information.
Reports have it that convicted drug lords languishing at the NBP supposedly raised a bounty of P50 million for both Duterte and Dela Rosa.
Dela Rosa said he was informed that drug lords at the national penitentiary discussed the plot and the bounty in a meeting.
“What they did not know is that one of those present in the meeting has been squealing what they had discussed to me,” said Dela Rosa.
The issue of the assassination plot came on the heels of the statement made by Duterte who is declaring an all-out war against drug lords. Duterte also offered a reward to anyone who would give any information against the drug syndicates.
Duterte said he will raise the bounty for every slain drug lord to P5 million if the criminal is caught or killed in Cebu because, he said, “the people here in Cebu are good. So there is premium.”
When asked where he will get the P300-million budget for the bounty, he said: “I already have it. The excess of campaign contributions.”
Duterte asked Congress to remove the lesser criminal penalty of probation for those convicted of drug offenses.
He also warned that he will not spare law enforcers who use drugs and announced that he will task the military to take care of lawmen found violating drug laws.
It was the second time Duterte publicly discussed his anti-drugs campaign after he summoned a midnight press conference on May 27 to scold authorities over the drug-related deaths of five young people in a Pasay City concert party.
Saying the deaths were caused by a failure of police intelligence, Duterte announced he would implement a massive reshuffle in the PNP and threatened to assign Metro Manila law enforcers to far-flung stations to instill duty and discipline among them.
