The Kingdom of the Illegal Drug Trade

September 16, 2019 Sideglance

People have every right to be worried in the recent explosive disclosures about how high risk drug convicts continue to ply their illegal drug trade despite being incarcerated in a security hardened prison such as the Muntinlupa National Penitentiary.

In a recent exposé bared during a senate inquiry regarding the application of a law that reduces the prison time for good behavior, it was disclosed that these convicts are able to secure hospital passes with the right amount of financial consideration, in order to be confined in the prison hospital even if they are not suffering from any illness or injury and thus provide them the opportunity to communicate with their cohorts outside the prison and transact
their illegal drugs business.

If this is later on validated by the Senate inquiry then it shows that no matter how the prison system seeks to restrict and regulate illegal activities, these hardened criminals who are facing life imprisonment sentences will always find a way to continue with their nefarious activities through bribery and perhaps even threats and intimidation.

In Mexico, international drug syndicates operating there have a way of exerting their influence and protecting their drug operations by offering “plata o plomo” which literally means silver or lead or in other words money or death.

These drug syndicates will simply tell those who would oppose them or those tasked with destroying their illegal activity that either they can take the money and become unwitting accomplices or refuse the bribe and prepare to be killed or assassinated. This is the carrot and stick approach taken to the extreme.

In the Muntinlupa national penitentiary, it would seem that bribery is very rampant and even those tasked to save lives are not immune from the temptation of taking a bribe.

The Senators have every right to assume that this has been going on for a very long time. In fact during the questioning ‘Bato’ dela Rosa who is himself a former Director General of the Bureau of Corrections expressed his sentiments about how high risk drug convicts are seemingly able to stay and be confined in the prison hospital for very long periods of time.

From revelations made in the Senate inquiry, it is clear that the very system now being applied in the national penitentiary has been corrupted by these high value convicts to suit their own vested interests.

It would also appear that the prison system could be very easily manipulated by those prisoners who have oodles of money spend and who has nothing better to do with their time in jail than plot and plan on how to continue running their illegal drug operation right inside the prison.

This must stop and if a complete overhaul of the penal and prison system is needed, then it is incumbent on the government to do everything possible to get this done at the soonest possible time.

If the corruption within the prison system is not addressed, particularly in relation to the illegal drugs operation being run inside the penitentiary, then the war on drugs advocated by President Rodrigo Duterte is already a failure.

Make no mistake about it right now. Those drug convicts are laughing their hearts out knowing that they can do whatever they want even while supposedly languishing inside one of the most secured facilities of the government.