Convicts tag De Lima as drug trade protector

By Delon Porcalla (The Philippine Star) | Updated October 11, 2016 - 12:00am

GO AHEAD, ARREST ME: Sen. Leila de Lima prays during a mass marking World Day Against the Death Penalty at the CBCP chapel in Intramuros, Manila yesterday. She dared authorities to arrest her on drug charges. EDD GUMBAN

MANILA, Philippines - She was fully aware of the illegal drug trade inside the national penitentiary when she was justice secretary and got a total of P10 million for her silence, a high-value inmate said yesterday, referring to Sen. Leila de Lima, whom he called the “protector” of convicted drug lords.
“Protector, ganun po ang dating. Wala po kaming ibang pinagkukunan ng pera (Protector, that’s how it was. There was nowhere else we could get money),” 36-year-old convicted kidnapper Jaybee Sebastian told the House committee on justice at the resumption yesterday of the hearing on the alleged illegal drug trade at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).
He was replying to questions from Compostela Valley Rep. Ruwel Peter Gonzaga.
Sebastian, who dropped out of college after his third year in Customs administration, also disclosed he “directly” gave P2 million to the former DOJ chief, who told him to leave the box containing the money in the office of then Bureau of Corrections director Franklin Bucayu.
Sebastian said he gave the bulk or P8 million to De Lima’s Presidential Security Group aide Joenel Sanchez between March and May 2015, but which the close-in security categorically denied, claiming he “resigned” as PSG detail in March of the same year.
 (source:http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/10/11/1632455/convicts-tag-de-lima-drug-trade-protector)