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Nine inmates were killed and seven injured in a pre-dawn clash on Friday between rival gangs inside New Bilibid Prison (NBP), authorities said.
Correctional Office (BuCor) spokesman Gabriel Chaclag said seven of the fatalities were members of the Sigue Sigue Sputnik gang and the other two were from its rival, Sigue Sigue Commando.
In an interview with the Inquirer, Chaclag said the confrontation in the east quadrant of the national penitentiary in the city of Muntinlupa began around 1 am and was “pacified” after about three hours.
He said they were still investigating what caused the riot. He was unable to reveal the names of the victims as their families have not yet been informed, he said.
“There were so many versions of how it started. We are still validating them and would release an official statement, ”said Chaclag.
Drastic actions
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said he had asked BuCor CEO Gerald Bantag to investigate the riots and submit a report as soon as possible.
“I am willing to take drastic action on NBP in light of these violent incidents, but I will reserve them until I see DG Bantag’s report before the end of the day,” Guevarra told reporters in a Viber message.
NBP is the second most congested of the seven prisons in BuCor. With 28,753 inmates for a facility built for 6,435 inmates, it had an occupancy rate of 447 percent as of August 2020.
One of the injured inmates told BuCor SWAT agents that he and some members of the Commando gang were “held hostage” inside an area in the maximum security compound. The inmate said he was able to survive by pretending to be dead.
According to a Muntinlupa police report, the violence occurred in Quadrant 4 Buildings 9, 2 and 5 of the East Maximum Security Complex at around 1:07 am.
Police subpoenaed witnesses in Building 9 and members of the Commando group who said they were sleeping outside their bedrooms when a shock woke them up.
They said that stones were thrown everywhere and some of the inmates were beaten who did not know there was a riot.
The gang members at war, according to the report, “tried to hit each other with whatever object they could hold.”
He added that some of the inmates claimed that members of the rival gang were making their way into their jurisdiction and simply defended themselves.
SWAT responders
Around 3 am, the wounded and dead were taken to the NBP hospital.
Police said eight of the dead sustained multiple “fatal” body injuries, which were not specified.
Police said there were multiple accounts of how the riot broke out, including a stabbing in dorm 20-2 and the harassment of a gay inmate.
Police said personnel from the Base Security Command and BuCor-SWAT were able to respond immediately to the disturbances.
In 2016, a riot occurred in the NBP that killed a convicted Chinese drug dealer, Tony Co, one of the so-called Bilibid 19 who allegedly operated the illegal drug trade within NBP.
The late Jaybee Sebastian, a convicted drug lord who was a leader of the Commando gang, was injured in that riot along with several other high-profile prisoners.
Sebastián died several months ago from COVID-19.
He had testified against the detained Senator Leila de Lima during the House hearing on drug trafficking in NBP and was a co-defendant in his drug case at the Regional Court of First Instance of Muntinlupa.
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