Organized crime

For three days, on 15, 19, and 22 December 2014, officials of the Philippine National Police, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, and National Bureau of Investigation led by then-Justice Sec. Leila de Lima conducted raids at the National Bilibid Prison — targeting drug lords allegedly operating in jail.

Among the items found were shabu, inflatable sex dolls, firearms, bladed weapons, mobile phones, flat-screen TVs, laptops, Patek Philippe, Cartier, and Rolex watches, and over P2 million in cash. There was also a stripper bar and jacuzzi in air-conditioned "villas" of high-profile inmates.

There have been other raids that followed, but the most recent on 1 November, according to Bureau of Corrections acting officer in charge Gregorio Catapang Jr., yielded the following items: a total of 7,512 liquors (beer in cans being sold for P1,000 each); P55,000 cash; 1,142 communication devices; 1,314 deadly weapons; 1,019 cigarettes or tobacco; 104 gambling materials; and 150 uncategorized contraband.

The difference between the 2014 and 2022 raids: In 2014, drug lords were the target; in the latest one, the message was, the reason this has been going on is that jail officials tolerate it.

But the deeper context is, the New Bilibid Prison is a base of operations of organized crime — including the planning and execution of murders.

Daily Tribune reported on 4 November that lawyer Berteni Causing, a legal representative of the family of Percy Lapid, went on record to say that the "mastermind" and his lieutenant who ordered the killing of the broadcaster "were powerful personalities at the NBP and that they can promise 'freedom' to gang leaders, whether the freedom to do what they want inside the penal facility or actual freedom through, according to sources, the liberal application of the Good Conduct Time Allowance."

Causing said the mastermind's righthand man passed the kill order to the leader of one of three gangs — whom the lawyer referred to as "Lords of the Rings."

They were summoned to the BuCor office in Bilibid.

Based on testimonies of persons of interest, Causing said: "The conversation was very brief and what was said was, 'Okay there's a job and just ask Lord No. 1 (about it).' Then they went out of the office and Lord No. 1 briefed the others.

"They agreed to do the job, the project to kill Percy Lapid, but they have to scout for a killer or the gunman, and they have to pool the money to give as budget to the gunman. The P550,000 that was to be the final contract price was raised from as far as the Iwahig Penal Colony in Palawan…"

The Daily Tribune report continued: "Among the three gangs, it was the Sigue-Sigue Sputnik that found a hitman through the now-deceased 'middleman' and gang member Jun Villamor," the lawyer said.

It was Villamor who contracted Escorial through the second "middleman" Christopher Bacoto, a detainee of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

The latest update on the case is that Lapid's brother, Roy Mabasa, asked in a TV interview whether suspended BuCor chief Gerald Bantag is the mastermind, said: "Yes."

If so, then the order to also eliminate Villamor came from the same person.

Classic mafia scene, right inside the country's national penitentiary.