Gangland rule

As pieced together by the family of broadcaster Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa, the contract to kill him was put out in September, shortly after he criticized in his radio program a government official for unexplained wealth.

Murder requires some planning, including raising funds if hired guns are to be used.

Mabasa family spokesman and lawyer Berteni Causing said the brains tasked three gang leaders in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) to raise the money for the hit.

Being the leaders or mayores of three gangs in the NBP’s maximum security compound, it must have been relatively easy for the three to raise the money, which totaled P550,000.

The money, Causing said, was funneled through the owner of a carinderia or eatery within the Bureau of Corrections reservation, where the NBP is housed. The carinderia owner, who needs BuCor approval to run that business, apparently tasked an employee to deposit the money in several tranches in the account of Joel Escorial, a member of a gun-for-hire ring.

Escorial had been contacted by another NBP inmate, murder convict Cristito “Jun” Villamor, while a detainee of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), Christopher Bacoto, got in touch with the rest of the gang.

It would have been another unsolved journalist killing, except surveillance cameras caught Escorial at the crime scene, and the enhanced video image was flashed in news reports. Escorial, fearing he would also be permanently silenced (he said), turned himself in.

Villamor had the same fear, as rumors circulated that the triggerman in Lapid’s murder had surrendered. Villamor texted his sister that the three mayores who raised the P550,000 intended to kill him. Unlike Escorial, however, Villamor could not reach out to anyone who could accept his surrender and keep him safe.

Shortly after he texted his sister, Villamor lost his breath and was pronounced dead at the NBP Hospital. He was rushed to a funeral parlor for embalming, without an autopsy.

Fortunately, forensic pathologist Raquel Fortun still managed to perform a belated autopsy, leading to the conclusion that Villamor was suffocated to death with a plastic bag placed over his head.

Under the circumstances, you can guess the identity of at least one of the brains (Causing says there appears to be more than one).

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How can prisoners engage in serious criminal activities with such impunity?

Raymund Narag blames it on overcrowding, inadequate resources for corrections, plus a judicial system that aggravates congestion and often causes injustice.

BuCor officer-in-charge Gregorio Catapang says the NBP, with a capacity for only 6,000 prisoners, currently holds over 30,000, with no corresponding increase in the number of prison guards.

Imagine if there is only one guard for every 100 prisoners. Narag says this forces NBP guards to rely on prisoners themselves to police their ranks and maintain order. The gang leaders or mayores take charge, and inevitably wield power within the facility.

Capable of running lucrative criminal activities outside prison from within the safety of their incarceration, these inmates also have the capability to corrupt their jailers.

You saw the types of contraband surrendered the other day during a sweep at the NBP ordered by Catapang. In addition to cell phones and bladed weapons, there were hypodermic syringes, shabu plus 7,000 cans of Red Horse beer, reportedly being sold for a whopping P1,000 a pop.

Narag says the NBP is one of the handful of remaining “mega prisons” in the world – facilities that house 1,000 or more persons deprived of liberty or PDLs.

Most countries have long shifted to more manageable smaller regional prisons, Narag said. If this would be done in the Philippines, he says it would also bring PDLs closer to their families, which could facilitate their rehabilitation preparatory to their rejoining the social mainstream.

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Narag has many sound ideas on prison reforms. He spent a long time drawing up those ideas: six years, nine months and four days, to be exact.

That was the time he spent languishing  in the Quezon City jail from 1995 to 2002, starting from when he was just 20 and about to graduate with honors from the University of the Philippines.

Narag was arrested along with 10 others following a fraternity rumble that led to the death of a member of the rival frat. He was supposedly identified when his mask came off during the rumble. Narag pleaded not guilty, but he was held without bail for murder and multiple frustrated murder.

Narag, a high school valedictorian from Tuguegarao who once dreamed of becoming a lawyer, a congressman and, why not, president, found God during his years of pre-trial detention – and the seeds of his lifetime advocacy.

Following his acquittal, he obtained a master’s degree in 2007 and a doctorate in 2013, both at Michigan State University. He spoke to “The Chiefs” on One News last week from the US, where he is currently an associate professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Southern Illinois University’s School of Justice and Public Safety.

Even from the US, Narag continues to push his advocacy for speedier justice in his home country.

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Based on his studies, Philippine PDLs stay in pre-trial detention for an average of 529 days, with some held without bail (or who can’t afford the bail bond) staying for five to 15 years before acquittal. Bail hearings alone can take 120 days and even up to six years.

Even before the days of Tokhang and Double Barrel, the QC jail was already congested. The war on drugs elevated the problem to inhuman proportions. We saw this in those images of PDLs half-naked (because of the heat) and packed like sardines in jail cells.

Narag is now a consultant on prison reforms of both the BuCor and BJMP. He has also formed a foundation that pays the bail bond of indigent, low-risk, first-time offenders using crowdsourced funds.

He has helped digitize the court calendar. Congress passed the Speedy Trial Act in 1998, requiring continuous trial. Still, even minor cases can drag on, with hearings scheduled only every two to three months.

Lawyers, paid per court appearance, prolong litigation through postponements over the flimsiest excuses. After going through this tortuous process, Narag says some innocent PDLs plead guilty just to speed up adjudication – never mind if this will be in their record forever.

Delays can also be caused by political pressure, corruption or sheer ineptness of judges whose appointments are based on connections rather than competence.

Without accompanying reforms in the judiciary and funding for regional prisons, detention facilities will remain congested, and gangs will still rule.