By Aaron Recuenco
The intelligence units of the government’s top law enforcement agencies have been given full access to the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) as part of the drastic reforms to finally put an end to deeply-rooted corruption and the alleged continuous operations of convicted drug lords in the detention facility.
The maximum security compound of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa (Jonathan Hicap / File Photo / MANILA BULLETIN)
Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gerald Bantag has agreed for the setting up of a liaison office of the Quad-Intel Force of the National Capital Region inside the NBP.
The Quad-Intel Force is composed of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-NCR, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)-NCR, and the military’s Joint Task Force-NCR. The heads of the four agencies met last month to launch what they described as a formation of the first-ever formal alliance of law enforcement agencies against illegal drugs.
NCRPO director Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said the liaison office of the Quad-Intel Force at the NBP will serve as the intelligence command headquarters to facilitate the sharing of information against convicted felons who are continuously running the operations of drugs syndicates and other criminal groups using smuggled gadgets and other forms of communication.
“The liaison office of the Quad-Intel Force is aimed at thwarting any attempt of convicted drug lords and personalities to continue supervising and controlling their operation using their tentacles outside the NBP,” said Eleazar.
“It is also mandated to come up with operational plans on any actionable intelligence report inside NBP against the cohorts of convicted drug lords and personalities that include narcos in law enforcement agencies,” he added.
“The campaign against illegal drugs should be a whole-government approach. Law enforcement agencies should not exclude another law enforcement group from another or should not keep intelligence information for themselves,” said Eleazar.
“We should share our intelligence, we should work as a team because we have one objective: to stop the illegal drugs operations at least in Metro Manila as ordered by the President,” he added.