Top NBP officials sacked over blast
J“Bakit nakakapasok ang mga ganyan dito? Yan din ang tanong ni presidente [How did those things get in here? The President also wants to know],” an infuriated de Lima asked Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officials during a surprise visit.
Last Friday, an inmate lobbed a
USTICE Secretary Leila de Lima on Monday sacked top officials and hundreds of jail guards at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) following a grenade explosion that was traced to a bitter feud among drug syndicates in the facility.
grenade that injured at least six people. Probers said that the incident could be related to a rivalry among drug personalities who are detained in the facility.
Relieved from their posts and placed on floating status were NBP superintendent Ramon Reyes and the chiefs of the NBP’s three prison colonies—superintendents Roberto Rabo (Maximum), Dante Cruz (Medium) and Gerardo Aro, supervisor of the Minimum Security Cmpd.
De Lima said that the relieved prison officials will be replaced by junior officers, while the investigation on the grenade blast is underway.
She also said that all 400 jail guards at the maximum security compound, where the explosion occurred, will also be replaced.
“We have about 100 new jail guards to take their place. I’ll be signing their appointments soon,” she said.
At the same time, de Lima inspected numerous confiscated bladed weapons and improvised firearms recovered from prisoners during a raid right after the incident. This prompted her to order another inspection on suspicion that the inmates could still be hiding more sophisticated weapons.
Disappointed
De Lima said that she was disappointed because weapons and even mobile phones reached the restricted compound and escaped detection by the guards.
NBP is supervised by the BuCor, which is under the Justice department.
The Muntinlupa City police is zeroing in on the possibility that the explosion could have been carried out by warring illegal drug lords detained at the NBP.
Initial investigation showed that a member of the “Batang Samar Leyte,” a known gang at the NBP, was the one who threw the grenade.
De Lima reviewed the closed-circuit television or CCTV footage that captured the incident on Friday. The footage showed a man, wearing an orange shirt and denim shorts and face covered with a towel, standing a few meters away from the group of inmates before the blast.
She said that she wants to confirm the identity of the man and would seek help from the National Bureau of Investigation to further enhance the video. She did not reveal the name of the suspect in the blast since his identity was not yet confirmed.