Man named Jaybee Sebastian dies due to COVID-19

A man named Jaybee Niño Sebastian has died and his remains have been cremated.

According to a report by GMA News stringer Rossel Calderon on Dobol B sa News TV, a death certificate showed that a 40-year-old man named Jaybee Niño Sebastian died on Saturday at the NBP Hospital.

The cause of death as listed on the death certificate is acute myocardial infarction as a complication of COVID-19.

No autopsy was done on the body.

The remains were cremated in a crematorium in Cavite.

FLASH REPORT: Inmate na nagngangalang Jaybee Sebastian, na-cremate na sa isang crematorium sa Cavite. | via Rossel Calderon, GMA News Stringer pic.twitter.com/fd2WNYztZG

— DZBB Super Radyo (@dzbb) July 19, 2020

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Sunday said he has summoned Bureau of Corrections Director General Gerald Bantag to his office on Monday regarding the matter.

In October 2016, at a House hearing on the alleged proliferation of illegal drugs inside the New Bilibid Prison, an inmate named Jaybee Niño Sebastian tagged Senator Leila de Lima as a protector of illegal drug operations in the facility.

De Lima said Sebastian was “pressured” by authorities to pin her down. 

In November 2016, Sebastian filed graft and criminal charges before the Department of Justice against De Lima and former Bureau of Corrections chief Ricardo Rainier Cruz and former NBP head Richard Schwarzkopf Jr. 

The complaints involve the following issues:

• the alleged complicity of De Lima, former Justice Secretary, in the proliferation of illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in exchange for campaign funds;
• De Lima's claim that Sebastian was a government asset inside the national penitentiary, and
• Sebastian's transfer from the maximum security compound to Building 14 despite threats to his life.

 —KG, GMA News