Former senator Leila de Lima (File photo)
MANILA – The Muntinlupa court trying the remaining criminal drug charge against former senator Leila de Lima has approved the defense lawyers’ plea to transfer back to the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) the 11 persons deprived of liberty (PDL) from their present incarceration at the Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro province.
In his four-page order dated Dec. 13 and released Wednesday, Muntinlupa RTC Branch 206 Judge Gener Gito ordered the transfer of the 11 inmates to the NBP.
These inmates include convicted drug lords Herbert Colangco and Wu Tuan Yuan alias Peter Co.
De Lima, who was earlier granted temporary liberty by the court while the case against her remains pending, asked the court last November to transfer custody of the 11 inmates.
De Lima said the inmates have contacted defense lawyers saying they feared for their safety and that of their family.
They also said they were coerced to testify against de Lima and appealed to be transferred back to the NBP from their present detention at the Pasugui Sub-prison facility.
Aside from Co and Colangco, ordered transferred back to the NBP were German L. Agojo, Tomas B. Doniña, Jaime V. Patcho, Engelberto Durano, Jerry R. Pepino Hans Tan Noel G. Martinez, Nonilo A. Arile and Joel D. Capones.
Peter Co and Agojo are the two remaining among the four supposed “Bilibid Kings” drug lords identified with de Lima after two others, Jaybee Sebastian and Vicente Sy, died behind bars during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Colangco, who was convicted for a string of robberies, had testified in the House of Representatives about alleged payoffs to prison officials in exchange for allowing contraband into prison, including beer and women.
Co, an inmate at the NBP since 2002 claimed he raised PHP50 million each for the assassination of President Rodrigo Duterte and former Philippine National Police chief Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa.
Agojo a.k.a. Arman was also tagged in the 2004 killing of Batangas RTC Judge Voltaire Rosales, who convicted him of selling shabu.
Agojo was among the Bilibid inmates who wrote to the government last June to swear that they were not involved in any plot to have Duterte killed.
Doniña, a former Navy personnel, has testified that he stabbed Sebastian in 2016 to prevent the latter from testifying in the de Lima case. (PNA)
