Dela Rosa tags drug lords in Santos killing

Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2020 09:26:42 +0000

SANTOS

By AARON RECUENCO

Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa yesterday tagged convicted drug lords at the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City as responsible for the death of the suspended top lawyer of the Bureau of Corrections.

In a press briefing in Camp Crame, Quezon City where he was the guest of honor and speaker for the founding anniversary of the Maritime Group, Dela Rosa said the convicted drug lords are also behind all the assassinations of BuCor employees and officials in the past.

“I am not preempting the investigation but most likely based on my experience, those who ordered the killing of our people in BuCor are drug lords inside the NBP,” said Dela Rosa.

The senator said he pities lawyer Fredric Santos when he found out that he was killed in front of the school of his daughter in Muntinlupa Wednesday afternoon.

Santos, head of the Legal Division of BuCor, died on the spot due to bullet wounds in the head. The gunmen remain unidentified.

“He is my former man. I pity him because he was already suspended, his life and his career were damaged, yet, he was still killed,” said Dela Rosa, a former BuCor director general.

Santos was tagged as among those responsible in the anomalous implementation of the Good Conduct Time Allowance in which wealthy inmates would allegedly bribe BuCor officials to shorten their jail terms.

Almost 2,000 NBP inmates, most of them convicted of heinous crimes, were freed under GCTA.

The Ombudsman suspended Santos and several others for six months.

In tagging drug lords behind Santos’ death, Dela Rosa said the usual reason is that BuCor officials would decline their requests for special treatment.

“They have the money and they can buy your life anytime,” said Dela Rosa.

This is the reason, according to Dela Rosa, why he has been advocating the restoration of death penalty for heinous crimes that include illegal drugs trade.

Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra suspects that Santos may have slain due to his alleged involvement in the anomalous implementation of the GCTA.

Guevarra has issued Department Order No. 82 directing the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate the killing of Santos.

With the inv
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