BY ELLSON QUISMORIO
A senior vice chairman of the House Committee on Justice is pushing for an investigation into the reported deaths of convicted high-profile drug lords and other inmates at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City.
Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez filed House Resolution (HR) No. 1090 seeking an investigation, saying the Department of Justice (DoJ) had confirmed last July 20 that nine inmates, including Jaybee Sebastian, a convicted kidnapper and car thief who served as a witness and co-accused in one of the drug cases against Sen. Leila de Lima, had died of COVID-19.
He said two days before the DoJ confirmation, a list of NBP prisoners who reportedly succumbed to coronavirus disease was “mysteriously circulated to journalists.”
He said there were even reports of “body-switching in which dead prisoners who are cremated due to COVID-19 are falsely identified so that high-profile inmates could go free.”
“There are too many questions and mysterious circumstances surrounding the ‘death’ of these inmates and there is a need to look further and investigate the matter,” the Mindanaoan stressed.
Aside from Sebastian, the other dead inmates were Benjamin Marcelo, Zhang Zhu Li, Jimmy Kin Sing Hung, Francis Go, Jimmy Yang, Eugene Chua, Ryan Ong, and Amin Imam Buratong. (Ellson Quismorio)
