Senator Leila De Lima thinks that Malacañang is behind the behind the riot at the New Bilibid Prison, which she called a “scare-tactic” of the Duterte administration to intimidate inmates into testifying against her in the controversial House probe on alleged drug operations inside the correctional facility.
De Lima said the high-profile inmates who got involved in the incident all declined to name her as a protector of drug lords.
The riot resulted in the death of Tony Co and to injuries inflicted to controversial inmates, including Jaybee Sebastian.
“I am not discounting the possibility that this so-called riot is Malacañang’s way of sending its message to prisoners who refuse to implicate me in the Bilibid drug trade as part of Aguirre’s and Malacañang’s tele-serye drama projecting me as the Bilibid Drug Queen,” she said as quoted in a report by the Manila Bulletin.
Calling on the Palace to stop this tactic, De Lima said that threatening the prisoners with violence “is the height of Mafia tactics and gangster-style operations that makes this government worse than a narco-state.”
De Lima also slammed the President for apologizing for the mistakes in the drug matrix, which wrongly included local officials.
“It is tragic that the highest official of the land has not only been fed lies and wrong information but also has listened to rumors and intrigues,” she said.
Fuming with anger, the senator added that no amount of apologies will bring the dead back to life.
“This is really madness! Please stop. Do not blame me later when, all of a sudden, it all blows up on your face, Mr. President, and you will realize that all these are wrong, all these are not true,” de Lima said.
As of writing, Malacañang has not issued an official statement to answer De Lima’s allegations, though Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II has stated that it is only the senator who stands to benefit from what happened in the riot.
“This is not good for the government. We want Jaybee Sebastian to live because we’re relying on him to spill the beans on Senator De Lima. So we don’t want him to die, we want him to live of course,” he stressed. De Lima will certainly benefit if Jaybee is killed,” Aguirre was quoted on Philstar.com.
