EDITORIAL - Murdered in prison?

The National Bureau of Investigation has filed murder charges against 22 policemen for the suspicious deaths of eight inmates at the New Bilibid Prisons allegedly presented to the public as COVID-19 fatalities.

While the Bureau of Corrections has not given the names of the eight inmates due to privacy considerations, it is suspected that one of them was alleged drug lord Jaybee Sebastian, notorious for living like a king in the prison, and whose suspicious death in July of 2020 was also subject of a previous editorial.

According to his death certificate, Sebastian died of “acute myocardial infarction related to COVID-19” at the NBP Hospital. But what made his death controversial was that nobody aside from jail, hospital, and funeral parlor personnel were allowed to see the body. No autopsy was conducted on account of the alleged cause of death.

The body was quickly cremated, leading to speculations that those responsible wanted certain injuries or wounds kept secret.

If the NBI is right, that means seven more people aside from Sebastian --again if we guess right that he was one of them-- were murdered inside the jail.

Of course, the accusations of the NBI have yet to be proven in court and the policemen have the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. But if they are found guilty will we find out how long has this been going on?

Along that line of inquiry: Are there more than inmates with suspicious deaths in the prison? And more important of all, were those inmates killed under orders from anyone?

The timing of these charges appears to be well thought of. An accusation like this never would have prospered under the administration of the previous president who had the reputation of having criminals killed.

Considering that this is a new administration under a new president, we might --just might-- see some development in this case.