The New Bilibid Prison inmates exchange P50 million to P100 million a day in illegal transactions right inside the national penitentiary, kidnapping convict and confessed drug dealer Jaybee Sebastian told lawmakers on Monday.
"Yung pera po na nasa loob nung kasagsagan po hindi po kayo magugulat kung makaka-confiscate po kayo ng 50 to 100 million," Sebastian said when asked how much money was circulating a day at the prison through transactions involving drugs, gambling and other illegal activities.
"Para kayong may Bilibid central bank?" Surigao Del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers asked.
"Imagine sir, meron po kaming money counting machines," Sebastian said.
Sebastian said cellphone jammers at the NBP were also turned off at the cost of P100,000 a week so that detained drug lords could transact their illegal business from inside the penitentiary.
“Hindi na po binubuksan yang (signal jammers), binubuksan lang kapag may inspection,” he said. Sinisingil kami ng 100,000 per week,” Sebastian said.
Asked who has control over the signal jammers, Sebastian said the operations center and former NBP directors Franklin Bucayu and Ranier Cruz supervised that office.
He, however, raised the possibility that the former directors might not have had any idea that the signal jammers were off.
“Possible na binulag yung director,” Sebastian said.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said that situation no longer exists now.
“The present jammers are so strong even the outsiders complain of not having any signal. The keys are with us and we instructed that there will be regular check up,” Aguirre said.
Sebastian said that the supply of shabu that was allegedly dealt by drug lords from inside the New Bilibid Prison came from China and North Korea.
He said that in 2011 or 2012, 60 to 70 percent of the shabu that entered the country came from North Korea.
Sebastian said there was no shabu manufacturing laboratory inside the NBP.
“China and North Korea,” Sebastian said when Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers asked where the supply of methamphethamine hydrochloride came from.