NBP remains top source of drug trade in Phl - Remulla

Content warning: This article contains sensitive topics, including discussions of drug-related activities, criminal behavior, and law enforcement operations. Reader discretion is advised.

Interior Secretary Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla said that the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City remains to be the number one source of drug trade in the Philippines.

In a Palace briefing on Tuesday, Remulla said that the problem at the NBP is “systemic”.

“They tried everything, they added further restrictions. But it seems that there is still a systemic problem inside Muntinlupa,” he said.

Remulla noted that even with a different new approach, contrabands still get through NBP.

The DILG chief said that changing personnel within NBP is not the answer but to change the location where inmates are located.

“You have to change the location, change their availability, change their accessibility, so that the communication to the outside world is curtailed. So that's what we're doing,” he said.

Remulla said that personnel allegedly involved in the continued drug trade within the NBP are being investigated.

Transfer of inmates

Around 200 high-profile inmates will be transferred to a new secured facility, according to Remulla. These inmates were identified and selected through intercepted communications and intelligence briefings showing they are still active in criminal activities.

Remulla has yet to disclose details about the new facility. He said it is a newly-built facility “somewhere in the Philippines”.

He added that the structure will be “the most secure facility yet built” and communications will be “totally cut”.

The structure will also utilize a different system using more technology.

On Monday, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. met with Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla along with his brother Jonvic, Police Chief Rommel Marbil and PDEA Director General Moro Virgilio Lazo to discuss operations in the administration’s war on drugs.

During the meeting, they discussed the next step in addressing the proliferation of drugs in the country.

Remulla said, they are now focusing on the supply side as previously they have concentrated on the consumption side.

“For the longest time, we have been concentrating on the consumption side, arresting them on street levels, arresting them on crimes they committed on a buy bust. This time, we are going heavy on the supply side chasing after the big guns, the big suppliers, the main men involved in the importation of drugs,” he said.

Remulla also disclosed that individuals involved in the drug trade now use sophisticated methods such as cryptocurrency and other means of distribution.

Breaking the culture

Remulla lamented that officials and personnel within the NBP have been “generational” coming from grandfathers to fathers and now sons.

“It is passed on from one family to the other. Some of them are four generations of employees inside BuCor,” he said. 

Moreover, Remulla believes there is money involved and continued corrupt practices.

“Even during the term of PRRD, when the Army was put in charge of the prison, the Armed Forces were corrupted as well. So we have to do something different, and we are doing something different now,” he said.

Intercepting smuggled illegal drugs

Currently, concerned government agencies are looking into the Manila International Container Port, Subic Port and the PHIVIDEC in Cagayan which were determined as main transit points of smuggled illegal drugs.

The government is collaborating with foreign anti-drug entities like the United States Drug Enforcement Administration to curb illegal drugs entering the Philippines.