The ongoing probe into the killing of broadcaster Percival Mabasa (aka Percy Lapid) and the suspicious death of the middleman inside his cell at the New Bilibid Prison has opened the Pandora’s box at the NBP in Muntinlupa starting off with a tunnel that since 2019 led to the escape of at least 31 inmates, then 176 unclaimed bodies in a funeral parlor in neighboring Alabang and then the pre-works for what could have been the deepest swimming pool.
All these developments seem to envision a life of entitlement and luxurious residence for both the officials of the Bureau of Corrections and select ‘moneyed’ inmates. Their funds obviously come from dubious sources as they seemed not to be budgeted by the Department of Justice and all designed to provide a continuous fund flow from within the jail. Why because for a fee, inmates are being allowed to bring in contraband (drugs, cigarets, deadly weapons and guns, drinks, gambling paraphernalia and even hot money for the prisoners to avail of such ‘luxuries’).
The Percy Lapid slay investigations also led to the discovery of drones being used to bring in such hot shipments.
But what is scary is not the presence of 176 unclaimed corpses in the Eastern Funeral Homes in Alabang, that investigators found being kept there way past the safe six months storage timeline but why those many deaths. Eastern was the sole mortuary service accredited by the BuCor, which kept the 176 bodies since December 2021.
Excavation
Last November 11, current NBP officials discovered a hole in the ground but were unsure if it was an escape tunnel or if it was made by former prison officials who were digging for gold. BuCor OIC Gregorio Catapang Jr. said the “tunnel” was part of an “excavation project” located close to the Director’s quarters—the official residence of BuCor director general.
The excavation started in 2019, but Catapang could not say if it started during the time of BuCor director general Nicanor Faeldon or Gerald Bantag, who took over in September that year. Bantag was suspended last month in connection with Percy Lapid’s murder and inmate Cristito “Jun Villamor” Palaña.
Eastern Funeral manager Charlie Bacani said that since December 2021, some 50 to 60 bodies have been brought there. Most of the cases as death from natural causes. He said they asked BuCor to retrieve 126 “overdue” bodies as their morgue could only store the bodies for five to six months. The question is how did they die, were they killed by fellow inmates or did prison guards kill them and for what reason? These and more questions need answers.
The latest body to be brought there was for the middleman in Lapid’s killing, who was found dead on Oct. 18, the same day that Joel Escorial, the confessed Mabasa gunman, was presented to the media. Forensic pathologist Raquel Fortun, whom Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla had asked to conduct an independent autopsy, said Cristito “Jun Villamor” Palaña Villamor’s case was homicide through suffocation with a plastic bag.
Muddy tunnel
The report did not specify the size of the muddy tunnel but described the excavation project to be as big as a “baseball field.” A photo of the hole posted by a former NBP official showed it was gouged out of the base of an adobe rock wall.
According to Catapang, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said it gave no permit for the excavation project.
This was not the first time that authorities discovered a tunnel in the NBP reservation.
The BuCor headquarters and the NBP’s camps currently occupy a total land area of 254.73 hectares. Other parcels comprising about 190 ha more are being used for the Muntilupa government’s socialized housing, BuCor farms or occupied by informal settlers.
In July 2014, a tunnel was discovered at a pipe-laying project by a water concessionaire, but BuCor officials said it was merely part of their “drainage system” built back in the 1930s. That tunnel was located behind Building 11-D inside the NBP maximum security compound, which at that time was serving as a detention facility for former soldiers and police officers.
Even after the publication of the tunnel of the dead, why is the Commission on Human Rights not stepping in to investigate and demand accountability and justice for the victims and their bereaved families.
Bantag explained that he initiated the excavation project because he was a “master scuba diver” who wants to build the deepest swimming pool in the metro.
The tunnel of still undetermined length goes under the Director’s Quarters’ swimming pool and ends at the Poblacion River at Katarungan Village inside the sprawling NBP reservation. “If you proceed further, that would be our fence, and then you could escape underneath it,” he said in the television interview.
31 escapes since 2019
Since 2019, BuCor has recorded 31 escapes from its prisons across the country—16 in 2019, two in 2020, six in 2021, and seven as of September 2022.
In the most recent prison break at NBP last Jan. 17 this year, four inmates from the maximum- security compound bolted out of the supposedly heavily guarded facility. Two of them—Pacifico Adlawan and Arwin Bio—were killed in the pursuit by BuCor and the Muntinlupa police. The other two escapees—Chris Ablas and Drakilou Falcon—remain at large.