From cellular phones and laptops to canned beer and illegal drugs, inmates at the New Bilibid Prison surrendered some 12,000 contraband items on Wednesday.
More than half of the contraband—7,500 to be exact—were cans of beer, BuCor officer-in-charge Gregorio Catapang Jr. said.
“This is the first time that that amount of contraband slipped past Bilibid. It is as if a truck delivered them,” Catapang said.
Each can of beer smuggled into the national penitentiary’s Maximum Security Compound is worth P1,000, he said, citing information from inmates.
Catapang said several people were tagged in the deliveries, including some jail officers who will be relieved of their duties because of the contraband.
“I will reform my own people first. I want them to be responsive and responsible. Some have revealed who was letting these things inside, but we cannot divulge to you the names yet because this is still under investigation,” he said.
“We are investigating it. We don’t want to point fingers yet. We have sworn statements, but we cannot announce them yet because our superiors have to be notified first. And then we finalize it.”
“We will not allow these things to happen. This has only been discovered now so we are investigating it so it won’t be repeated,” Catapang added.
Catapang was designated as BuCor OIC after the suspension of Gerald Bantag following the death of an alleged middleman in the murder of journalist Percival Mabasa, also known as Percy Lapid in his radio show.
A second, independent autopsy on Crisanto/Jun Villamor Palaña’s bodyconcluded that he died from plastic bag suffocation. Traces of shabu were also found in his body.
