New Bilibid Prisons (MB file photo)

Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa on Sunday, August 6 said he will ask authorities of the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) why they allowed persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) to accept food deliveries through online apps like GrabFood and FoodPanda.

Dela Rosa made the commitment as the Senate schedules its first hearing into the various anomalies inside the NBP on Tuesday, August 8.

Dela Rosa said he never allowed such luxury to NBP inmates when he was the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief.

“Never, never kong in-allow yan. Eto ang tanong ko: kung binabawalan natin silang mag-cellphone doon sa loob, paano sila makapag-deliver ng pagkain sa Grab (I never allowed that. This is my question: if inmates are not allowed to use cellphones inside, how can they deliver food through Grab)?” Dela Rosa said in an interview on Radio DZBB.

“Ibig sabihin naglipana na naman ang cellphone sa loob, kaya nakaka-order sila? (Does that mean cellphones are now allowed inside, that’s why they can order)?” the senator pointed out.

On top of this, Dela Rosa said it could also mean that inmates can also have access to Internet.

“Ibig sabihin meron na naman silang communication sa loob? So that explains why marami na namang kababalaghan ang nangyayari, may droga na naman, may mga baril na naman nakakapasok. So ganun yun (Does it mean they have communication again inside? So that explains why there are so many anomalies happening inside, there are drugs again, guns. So that explains it),” he lamented.

“Sa panahon natin, bawal ang cellphone, bawal any form of communications (During our time, cellphones are banned, any form of communication is banned),” the former Philippine National Polcei chief added.

Dela Rosa said he will grill NBP officials and even the Department of Justice (DOJ) about the food allowances of inmates.

The senator recalled that during the time he headed the BuCor, he had explicitly prohibited jail authorities from using the budget alloted for the inmates food.

“Bakit sa panahon ko, di ganun man din kalaki ang food allowance nila, pero wala naman akong narinig na mag reklamo sa pagkain (During my time, their food allowance wasn’t that also big, but I didn’t hear any complaints regarding food),” he pointed out.

Allowing the inmates to buy their own food, even if through their family members, defeats the purpose of reforming and or rehabilitating them, Dela Rosa explained.

“Eh parang ordinaryong dormitory ng eskwelahan na lang pala yang kulungan na yan; dapat itigil yan (The jail now becomes an ordinary school dormitory…that must stop),” the senator further lamented.

“It defeats the purpose of being confined and rehabilitation kung maraming external factors na pumapasok dyan sa loob ng Bilibid, kaya nga kinompile natin sila dyan sa loob para ma reform, pero espesyal pala sila dyan sa loob (It defeats the purpose of being confined and rehabilitated if there are external factors that are getting inside Bilibid. The reason why they are compiled inside the NBP is to reform them, but they are treated special inside instead),” he added.

Dela Rosa also said he will ask the DOJ, NBP, and other law enforcers if they pushed through with the proposal to separate some high-profile inmates from the others.

The Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, chaired by Sen. Francis Tolentino will start its probe into the reported “mass grave” inside the NBP, on Tuesday, August 8.

In particular, Tolentino said his committee will look into the suspicious deaths and disappearances of some inmates, plus the reported shooting inside the Bilibid and other “collateral matters.”

“It is also important to hold the hearings so we can visualize,” Tolentino said in an interview on DWIZ on Saturday, August 5.

Tolentino earlier filed Senate Resolution No. 709, in light of the discovery of human body parts inside the septic tank at the NBP’s maximum security compound.