Opposition Sen. Leila de Lima said the Senate should start its own investigation into the reported deaths of high-profile inmates and other persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) inside the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) last month.
(MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
De Lima lamented there is utter lack of transparency surrounding the deaths of the PDLs and the actual extent of the COVID-19 contagion in jails and prisons nationwide.
The former Justice Secretary said there is a need to shed light on the reported deaths of nine high-profile inmates, including Jaybee Sebastian, who were all housed at NBP’s maximum security compound, due to the coronavirus disease.
“These deaths of high-profile NBP PDLs not only raise numerous doubts on how health protocols and procedures are being out rightly neglected by the BuCor (Bureau of Corrections) but also how this pandemic can be a convenient excuse to cover up torture and killings of PDLs or worse, to even simulate deaths of PDLs,” De Lima said in filing Senate Resolution No. 491.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) has said that at least 476 PDLs have died in different prison facilities nationwide from January to July 2020, with a daily average of two to three deaths or 50 to 60 deaths per month.
Of the deaths, 21 were confirmed COVID-19 cases and another 24 were suspected to be COVID.
Of the 476 reported deaths, nine were deaths of high-profile PDLs -- Jaybee Sebastian, Amin Imam Boratong, Benjamin Marcelo, Zhang Zhu Li, Jimmy Kinsing Hung, Francis Go, Jimmy Yang, Eugene Chua, and Ryan Ong.
De Lima noted that while the BuCor eventually released the death certificates of the nine high-profile PDLs, there are speculations that their deaths could have been faked.
Other senators who pressed for an inquiry into the issue were Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Sen. Risa Hontiveros.
Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights and Blue Ribbon Committee, said the panel may resume its hearings on the various anomalies and corruption issues hounding the NBP and take up the issue of the COVID-related deaths of prisoners as well.
De Lima said a relative of Boratong confirmed that they were able to retrieve his body and bury it but they were not sure if it was him.
The relative said BuCor personnel refused to open the body bag while his medical records were not released even upon lawyers’ request, according to De Lima.
She said that even the wife of Sebastian had doubts on the reports her husband is dead since she was not able to retrieve her husband’s body after being told his remains had to be cremated immediately at a public cemetery in Cavite within 12 hours to prevent the spread of infection.
No autopsy was also conducted on Sebastian’s body. Sebastian was one of the supposed state witness in De Lima’s drug case that is now pending before the courts.
“The lack of transparency of BuCor with regard to deaths and of the true extent of contagion in jails and prison facilities, together with overcrowding, absence of reliable testing, inadequate health facilities, lack of protective medical equipment, non-implementation of physical distancing and health protocols inside jails and prisons, all show that the government failed in its duty to protect basic human rights and to value dignity of PDLs."