EDITORIAL - New drug traffickers

It has to be the safest control center for organized crime. What else can you do to convicts who run drug trafficking and other criminal operations around the country from the confines of the New Bilibid Prison? This question has been raised again following the confirmation of reports that a new set of drug traffickers has emerged in the NBP.

The confirmation was made by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. PDEA officials told the House of Representatives at a hearing this week that the new traffickers were Chinese nationals who were recently convicted, and who peddled party drugs such as liquid Ecstasy, said to be a more potent version of the drug in pill form.

Many months ago, several self-confessed drug traffickers detailed how they conducted their illegal activities from behind prison bars. The drug dealers implicated Sen. Leila de Lima in their illegal activities, alleging that she received drug payoffs when she headed the Department of Justice, which has jurisdiction over the Bureau of Corrections including the NBP.

You’d think after the testimonies of convicts such as Jaybee Sebastian, prison authorities would have learned enough to prevent inmates from supervising drug trafficking operations outside the national penitentiary.

Among the most basic measures is depriving inmates of the use of mobile phones. This includes conducting regular sweeps of detention facilities to ensure that no phones are sneaked in, either by visitors or by corrupt prison personnel. Inmates can still maintain contact with the world outside prison through landlines where their calls can be monitored.

As periodic raids at the NBP keep showing, however, cell phones continue to be sneaked into the prison along with deadly weapons and other contraband. This can only happen with the connivance of the persons tasked to guard the prisoners. The recent PDEA report should prompt a reassessment of security measures in the NBP, and the imposition of sanctions against those who are coddling the new drug lords.