Hellfire spews (c)ash

“There are just too many rackets going on inside the New Bilibid Prison, the national penitentiary which has become the center of national criminal operations, instead of a rehabilitation center for criminals.

On 17 August early evening, a police sergeant was gunned down by motorcycle-riding men several meters away from the station he was manning in Quezon City.

His assassins made sure he was dead, pumping metal-piercing bullets into his body. He died instantly.

Daily Tribune listened to the narratives of his relatives as they tried to piece together events that led to his murder.

They said he had invested some amount on a scam perpetrated by a colleague. It was a ponzi scheme and his former fellow was sent behind bars for it. It could be the reason for his death, but they are not convinced. It was just a small case, a small amount to consider murder.

He had touched several cases, but his colleagues believe he handled all these well. They said he was a good policeman.

But there was one striking case that his friends and relatives believe could have led him to become a marked man — that accidental arrest of the last family member of a brazen carnapping syndicate, whose members have reportedly been given their tickets to freedom through the now controversial Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) Law recently.

One of his relatives claimed he was the fifth of the six policemen taken out.

The first, chief of their police operation that netted the elder of the two notorious carnapping brothers when he went against traffic flow which resulted in a brief car chase, suddenly went missing. He never surfaced since then.

She said he had been kidnapped and possibly killed and burned, like what they did to a car dealer victim.

The next three were gunned down before the sergeant was taken out just after he stepped out of a convenience store to buy food presents for his kids.

The sixth and only living member of that group has gone into hiding, she claimed to have been told by his other colleagues.

They said they have strong reasons to believe the brothers were responsible to the assassinations.

But how could they when they are in prison?

The Senate hearings on the GCTA have a lot to reveal. But each player in that probe seemed overwhelmed by the overflow of information coming out of the complainants, witnesses and resource persons.

There are just too many rackets going on inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), the national penitentiary which has become the center of national criminal operations, instead of a rehabilitation center for criminals.

Prostitution is alive within in the NBP. Women come and go, for a price.

Kidnap-for-ransom are planned inside the NBP.

Drug dealings are made under the noses of prison officials. Or sometimes, they were and are in cahoots with the convicts, who in turn become their bosses. All these for a fee.

Use of communication gadgets are allowed with a price.

Money flows freely within the NBP. Cash is king in NBP gambling operations.

A former inmate, convicted for killing a gambling mate who was a former basketball star, once told Daily Tribune that NBP officials make a killing by allowing multinational operations within the NBP. Cellular phone parts were made there when he served time.

A former mayor who was once jailed for raping a minor kept a mansion in a village just outside the walls of the NBP.

Criminals, wags say, are extracted from the NBP to conduct hits. They enjoy their unauthorized furlough, then they come back after their assignments.

These stories are too wild, they deserve to made as movie scripts.

A movie, “On the Job,” was once made out of these narratives.

But who would not believe them when these are confirmed — one by one — by the witnesses called by the Senate?

The gates of notorious Muntinlupa do not lead to reform nor perdition.

They only open new opportunities to the convicts and the people who were tasked to manage the prison gates.