The Bureau of Corrections is investigating a 200-meter wide and 30-meter deep tunnel discovered inside the New Bilibid Prison, prisons chief officer-in-charge Gregorio Catapang Jr. said in a television interview Friday.
“We are not experts on this so we called for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. They said this was an illegal excavation or illegal quarrying since there is no permit but we are not experts on this so we will rely on the DENR for this,” Catapang said.
Asked if the tunnel was used for inmates to escape or to smuggle contraband, he said the BuCor will still have to find out.
“We will look into that. There are so many possibilities on what it could be used for,” Catapang added.
Catapang said the tunnel, which leads to a river, was dug below a swimming pool.
The tunnel was discovered days after some 12,000 contraband items were seized from the NBP earlier this month.
The illegal items include cellular phones, laptops, illegal drugs, and some 7,500 cans of beer.
The issue of contraband items entering the NBP surfaced after it was confirmed that Cristito “Jun Villamor” Palana, the alleged middleman in the hit order against broadcaster Percival Mabasa, was in possession of a cellular phone inside the jail facility.
Palana was killed hours after self-confessed gunman Joel Escorial surrendered to authorities. Before he died—from plastic bag suffocation based on the second autopsy—the inmate, who was already fearful for his life, was able to message his sister where he confessed to the crime and revealed details on who ordered the murder of Mabasa.
Meanwhile, Catapang said BuCor will publish the names of some 166 NBP inmates whose cadavers remained unclaimed at the Eastern Funeral Homes have been buried.
“There are 176 and we buried 10. So there are 166 left at the Eastern Funeral Parlor,” he said.
The Department of Justice is seeking to transfer the remaining bodies to the University of the Philippines College of Medicine for a possible autopsy.
Catapang said he will also implement the wearing of body cameras for BuCor personnel.
“I will implement a mass cam. The purpose is to guard the guardians.
They will have body cams and it will not be for the prisoners. I will give them a reason not to be ordered around by drugs lords and be their accomplices,” he said.