THE police on Thursday maintained that a shabu session at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa caused the riot that killed a high-profile convict and seriously wounded three others, amid conflicting versions from witnesses that prompted calls for a probe.
PNP chief Rolando Dela Rosa said an initial investigation by prison officials said the riot was caused when a former police officer detained in the same prison caught several inmates using methamphetamine or shabu.
“Initially, that’s the version of events we received, which is the same as that of the Justice department contained in the report from the Bureau of Corrections,” Dela Rosa said in Filipino.
“The former police officer rebuked the Chinese inmantes, they got angry, and a riot ensued.”
Dela Rosa said he could not speculate if it was a simple prison riot, or if it was an attempt to silence inmates that could link Senator Leila de Lima to the illegal drug trade being run out of the NBP.
One of those wounded was inmate Jaybee Sebastian, whom witnesses at a House probe identified as the drug lord who collected money for De Lima’s senatorial campaign.
“It’s hard to speculate. We must be very careful,” Dela Rosa said.
On Monday, Justice Undersecretary Reynante Orceo said Sebastian, Peter Co and inmate and former police officer Clarence Dongail gave conflicting accounts of what happened, but said the testimony of Co and Sebastian seemed to match.
According to Dongail, he accosted Vicente Sy, Peter Co, and Tony Co after another prisoner reported seeing them in a shabu session. Angered, Tony Co supposedly followed him to the mess hall and attacked him.
But convicted drug lord Peter Co claimed Dongail invited him to talk so he brought Sy as a witness, but they were immediately attacked by the former policeman and another inmate when they entered Dongail’s cell.
Sebastian, on the other hand, claimed he was attacked by an inmate he identified as Tomas Dolina while he was watching television at the mess hall.
Sebastian was in stable condition, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said, but his lawyer disputed the findings of the investigators and claimed the incident was an attempt on Sebastian’s life.
“What I feared before is now happening.” Sebastian was quoted as saying by his lawyer Edgar Arriba.
Arriba said Sebastian claimed there was no altercation prior to Wednesday’s attack, leading Sebastian to conclude that it may be related to the ongoing House investigation on the drug trade inside NBP, Arriba added.
Sebastian’s lawyer added that he is ready to divulge everything about the illegal trade inside the penitentiary, but only to President Rodrigo Duterte.
At a news conference, De Lima said the riot was the Palace’s way of sending a message to the prisoners who refuse to implicate her in the drug trade as part of Aguirre’s TV drama to vilify her as the “Bilibid Drug Queen.”
But Dela Rosa said he has asked the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to take over the investigation to avoid any suspicion of a whitewash.
He added that up to four suspects, whom he didn’t name, were behind the jail riot Wednesday.
Following criticism by Senator Richard Gordon that the PNP Special Action Force allowed shabu and knives inside the penitentiary, which was being guarded by the SAF, Dela Rosa said the riot “was beyond their control.”
He also admitted that contraband may still enter the maximum security compound as the SAF cannot check every inch of the maximum security compound.
“If the SAF didn’t respond quickly, all those who were wounded would have died now,” Dela Rosa said.
The Duterte administration had earlier conducted a crackdown inside the New Bilibid Prison, with members of the Special Action Forces replacing Bureau of Corrections personnel in guarding high-profile inmates.
Dela Rosa said he was proud of their achievements, despite Wednesday’s riot.
“I’m very proud of them. I’m very happy for what they are doing, but now something has happened,” he said. “And what happened was beyond our control, because we cannot search the entire building.”
Orceo said they would await the investigation of the CIDG, after inmates gave conflicting versions of what happened.
“We cannot make a conclusion at this point yet because we still have raw data. We have to verify and investigate further since there are apparently two versions coming out,” Orceo said.
After the riot, Tony Co was declared dead on arrival at the hospital, while Peter Co, Sy and Sebastian suffered stab wounds.
NBP officials said they found no traces of shabu or any drug paraphernalia at the scene of the incident.
Orceo said they would subject the inmates involved to a drug test and check the CCTV footage.
“There will be drug testing of the inmates to determine if there was really drug session at that time. We will then know which version is more credible,” he said.
Orceo added that the investigation would look into possible link between the stabbing incident to the ongoing House of Representatives inquiry into the proliferation of illegal drugs in the national penitentiary.
“This incident happened when there are indications that these inmates will testify before the House inquiry. Maybe it is coincidence or maybe there is something or someone behind it. We have to be careful about it so the public will not speculate,” Orceo said.
Aguirre earlier denied the insinuation of De Lima that the incident could be part of attempts to force Sebastian to testify before the House inquiry and implicate her in the illegal drug trade inside the NBP.
Also on Thursday, Dela Rosa said that an operation targeting celebrities believed to be involved in illegal drugs would start as soon as the President returns from Vietnam.
Saying that Duterte has in his possession a list containing names of celebrities involved in drugs, Dela Rosa said the President advised him to wait.
The President earlier vowed to have a session before the media, where he would reveal his “thickest-ever” narco-list, involving more than 11,000 policemen, 16,000 barangay officials and governors, mayors, congressmen.
Dela Rosa said that the PNP will soon probe the 11,000 cops to be named by President Rodrigo Duterte.