Lifestyles of the prison’s rich and infamous
Up to P200,000 a month was spent in electricity alone for an air-conditioned office-cum-detention facility whose construction he himself had financed with drug money. During Christmas, he spent about P3 million for the holiday parties of his Commando gang members.
Convicted kidnapper Jaybee Sebastian, facing a congressional inquiry yesterday, painted a luxurious lifestyle for high-value inmates like himself at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), thanks to drug trafficking, although he said life outside prison was still much better.
Sebastian estimated that from P50 million to P100 million a day was earned in illegal transactions at the NBP. There was so much cash, he said, that money counting machines
were brought in.
Witnesses said NBP guards looked the other way as prostitutes, weapons and other contraband were brought into the prison compound.
To ensure that drug deals were carried out with the least disruption, signal jammers were switched off most of the time – for sizeable fees to prison officials, said Sebastian, who has spent most of his 36 years as a jailbird, and who is serving two life terms.
Self-confident and articulate, Sebastian at one point begged off from naming on national TV inmates engaged in illegal deals. Asked if he was afraid to be killed, he calmly denied it, saying he feared he would kill the inmates if they went after him.
Sebastian confirmed “A1” information relayed to the House committee on justice by Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers that prison officials would turn off jammers so drug transactions and other illegal activities could proceed smoothly through calls and texts from mobile phones.
He said the practice was common when Sen. Leila de Lima was still justice secretary. The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) is under the Department of Justice.
He confirmed reports that BuCor officials were paid P100,000 per hour for the deal. “Sa operations center po iyan.
Hindi na nga po binubuksan (the jammers were not turned on).”
It also reached a point when Sebastian believed the socalled raids conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation were just “moro-moro” or a farce, as nothing turned up during those raids, especially
during the time of former BuCor chief Franklin Bucayu.
Sebastian said he could not comprehend until now what Bucayu meant in his text message to him, which read: “Magiging sing-kinang ng ginto at sing-tibay
ng riles ng tren (Bright as gold and strong as railroad tracks).”
Sebastian admitted he and fellow convict and drug lord Herbert Colanggo were engaged in a stiff drug competition.
Colanggo’s holding numerous concerts and parties at the prison may partly explain why he was portrayed as the fairhaired boy of De Lima then.
Monthly bills from the Manila Electric Co. for the maximum security compound alone ranged between P70,000 and P200,000. Sebastian promised to produce the Meralco bills as soon as he is able to gather them.
Sebastian also said he had no idea why he was the only one left when the NBI raided the prison facility in December 2014 and moved his fellow drug lord-convicts to the NBI complex in Manila.
“I’m just a servant. I’m not a king. Hindi po tayo matatapos dito kung iyan po ang paguusapan natin dito (We’ll never finish if that’s what we’ll talk about),” Sebastian told Kabayan Rep. Harry Roque, as he pointed to former BuCor chief Gaudencio Pangilinan who sanctioned the Discovery Channel documentary.
He nonetheless admitted belatedly realizing that he may have been special to De Lima. “On the latter part po, narealize ko iyan,” the convict conceded, but stressed he wouldn’t be surprised if the 14,000 convicts at the maximum security compound pointed to him as the sole culprit behind the proliferation of drugs.
Sebastian pointed to 11 other gang leaders as responsible for the drug trade inside NBP.