Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II presented five more convicts at the House of Representatives on Wednesday in his bid to tightened the noose on President Duterte's No. 1 critic, Sen. Leila de Lima, who was linked to the illicit drug trade at New Bilibid Prison (NBP) during her term as justice secretary.
For the second day in a row, NBP inmates faced the House of justice committee to accuse De Lima of complicity in clandestine multibillion-pero drug operations at the national penitentiary and of receiving millions of pesos in drug money to bankroll her senatorial campaign in May.
But there appeared to be little new information during the 10-hour hearing besides details apparently corroborating the testimonies of the witnesses against De Lima.
The new witnesses did not claim that they directly gave De Lima money but said they either deposited cash or asked their referrals to make deposit to bank accounts controlled by her trusted lieutenant, including Jaybee Sebastian, a gang leader who emerged as the "king of drug lords" after centralizing drug operations at NBP in 2014.
According to murder convict Jojo Baligad, an "adviser" at Batang City Jail, he gave payments from the drug operations amounting to P3.8 million from January 2013 to September 2014.
Herbet Colanggo, a convicted bank robber, previously testified that he gave De Lima p60 million in total, including regular money payoffs of p3 million, plus P1 million for each of the lavish concerts he organized until he was transferred to the National Bureau of Investigation as part of the so-called Bilibid 19.
Colanggo's surname was previously mistakenly spelled as "Colangco."
Sebastian, according to Aguirre, has declined to testify on the drug operations at NBP. In the meantime, the House committee has issued a subpoena compelling him to appear at the hearing.
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer
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