BuCor chief destroys gadgets allegedly used in Bilibid drug deals

Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Gerald Bantag Jr. on Monday led the destruction of prison contraband, among which were numerous gadgets allegedly used by New Bilibid Prison inmates for drug transactions.

According to a Balitanghali report by Marisol Abdurahman, Bantag used a steamroller to destroy cellphones, pocket WiFi devices, wifi routers, laptops, tobacco, marijuana, liquor, and bladed weapons which prison authorities had been confiscating from inmates since October 9.

According to the BuCor, an ordinary keypad cellphone costs between P40,000 to P50,000 inside the Bilibid, while an Android cellphone sells for P200,000.

Tobacco costs about P4,000 per roll inside the compound, while liquor sells for P10,000 per bottle.

Bantag said one senior officer of the National Capital Region Police Office received an offer of P150,000 from a Chinese inmate in exchange for his cellphone.

When the official refused, the inmate raised his offer to P200,000.

The policeman was supposed to arrest the Chinese inmate but the latter ran away.

The official said he could no longer identify the inmate who tried to bribe him because all the "Chinese inmates looked alike."

The BuCor chief also revealed that he had been receiving death threats and that there was a plot to besmirch his and other BuCor officials' reputations.

Bantag, however, maintained that such threats and plots would not deter him from enacting his planned reforms.

He also vowed to continue conducting operations against alleged drug transactions inside the NBP.

Meanwhile, some inmates at the Maximum Security Compound were transferred to the Minimum and Medium compounds to decongest the Bilibid. — Julia Mari Ornedo/DVM, GMA News