Manila: Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said that officials and guards at a national penitentiary in suburban Mandaluyong will testify on the alleged involvement of Senator Leila de Lima to illegal drug trade while she was head of the justice department.
“Officials and guards at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) have given statements why convicted drug lords have continued operating while in prison,” said Aquirre, adding, “A probe committee composed of justice undersecretaries and state prosecutors found out why lax treatment was given to convicted drug lords at NBP.”
He did not give details.
The least guilty could become state witnesses, said President Rodrigo Duterte who released on Thursday a matrix which showed de Lima as the highest official among six others whom he named as drug lord protectors at NBP and drug pushing coddlers in Pangasinan, northern Luzon.
Duterte’s latest matrix of drug lord protectors also included former Justice Undersecretary Francisco “Toti” Baraan III; De Lima’s driver (and alleged lover) Ronie Dayan; Congressman Amado Espino Jr., from Pangasinan; Provincial Administrator Rafael “Raffy” Baraan of Pangasinan; Board Member Raul Sison of Pangasinan; and retired Gen. Franklin Bucayo.
Denying the accusation, de Lima retorted, “Is this a joke? Was it a joke?”
Looking forward to celebrate her 57th birthday on August 28, de Lima said, “I wish to do more meaningful things than defending myself from wrong accusations.”
Dayan, who is from Pangasinan; and Baraan have offered to become state witnesses, Duterte hinted.
Earlier, Duterte said that Dayan was De Lima’s lover who paved her linkage to drug lords at NBP, but added he was also a “bagman” and could not have acted on his own.
As head of the senate committee on justice, de Lima is now leading an investigation on extrajudicial killings related to Duterte’s anti drug-war.
Rights groups have accused Duterte and the police for extrajudicial killings in efforts to stop illegal drug trade in three to six months, a campaign promise before Duterte’s election last May.
Other sources said that drug syndicates were also behind the killing of suspected drug pushers and drug users, the number of which reached more than 1,000 since May.
Earlier, Duterte named five generals who were drug protectors; and released more than 150 names of local government leaders and congressmen who were tainted by illegal drug trade.
Drug cartels from China been manufacturing shabu in the Philippines while drug cartels in Mexico, and West Africa have been shipping shabu to the Philippines for distribution in Asia. Illegal drug trade reached $8.4 billion (Dh30.85 billion) in 2013, authorities said.
