{"id":35617,"date":"2014-12-16T17:16:25","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T09:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=35617"},"modified":"2014-12-16T17:21:18","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T09:21:18","slug":"drug-lords-living-it-up-at-nbp-face-longer-sentences-de-lima-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/12\/16\/drug-lords-living-it-up-at-nbp-face-longer-sentences-de-lima-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug lords living it up at NBP face longer sentences, de Lima says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DOJ<\/a>
DOJ Sec. Leila De Lima. Photo courtesy of UNTV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA, Philippines\u2013Reacting to the recent controversy at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Monday that convicted drug lords found to have been enjoying a luxurious lifestyle and continuing their trade from behind bars will be slapped with new charges and extended prison terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cCorrect, more cases will be filed against them,\u201d De Lima said to reporters who asked what penalties would be meted upon the prisoners in question.<\/p>\n

On Monday morning, de Lima, along with 100 agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Philippine National Police (PNP), led a surprise inspection at the NBP\u2019s maximum security compound.<\/p>\n

Seized from within the prison were illegal drugs, and various recreational items; such as a hot tub, a 48-inch flat screen television, a Playstation 4, and a dining set, Among others. On inmate was also found with a sizable amount of cash in his possession.<\/p>\n

De Lima said the raid was served as a \u201cfollow-through investigation,\u201d as well as a \u201ccase buildup\u201d against the convicts and prison officials found to be in cahoots with the illegal activity and smuggling in of contraband items.<\/p>\n

Prior to the operation, there were already reports that wealthy, convicted drug lords were still able to continue their drug trafficking operations from inside prison.<\/p>\n

The justice secretary expressed her disgust over what she described as dwellings more akin to a condominium than a maximum security lockup in a state prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m completely disgusted. In fact I feel beyond disgusted because I thought problems like that are being dealt with because sometimes they (prison officials) conduct raids and they report results to me. They even have list of [seized] contraband. It now appears it\u2019s just the tip of the iceberg,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe the New Bilibid Prison personnel could not get inside because they are prevented or not allowed. Or maybe, somehow, they are being threatened or bribed to turn a blind eye,\u201d she conjectured, in reference to claims that prison officials were \u201cunaware\u201d of the luxurious dwellings.<\/p>\n

De Lima renovations of the facility will be underway as soon as the Bureau of Corrections receives the allotted budget, but it could take a while before the facility is ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will make it more secure. We will put proper facilities, such as closed-circuit television cameras, and we will place dependable prison guards. It will take a few months,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA, Philippines\u2013Reacting to the recent controversy at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Monday …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":14622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news-ph","mauthors-angie-duarte","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}