Gov't to crack down on NBP drug network
The government will center its anti-illegal drug campaign at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa, which the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) tagged as the top source of drug trade in the country.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. supported the new strategy during a meeting last Monday.
"For the longest time, we have been concentrating on the consumption side, arresting them on street levels, arresting them on crimes committed by buy bust," Remulla said in a press briefing in Malacanang last Tuesday.
"This time, we are going heavy on the supply side, chasing after the big guns, the big suppliers, the main men involved in the importation of drugs. The personalities have been identified. I am not at liberty to discuss it," he added.
He said they have determined an initial 200 high-value detainees at the NBP, who are still able to communicate with their associates.
The detainees, Remulla said, will be transferred from NBP, which is managed by the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), to a new maximum security facility.
This seeks to end the systemic problem in the NBP, where '' the [position of the] employees...are being passed from one family to another. '' ''Some of them are four generations of employees inside the BuCor," Remulla said.
Remulla said BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang, Jr. will be retained. DMS
