More than 7,000 cans of strong beer, cash, weapons and illicit drugs were recovered at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City after “Oplan Galugad” or contraband search by prison officials.

“This costs PHP1,000 each,” Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officer-in-charge Gregoio Catapang Jr. said in a press briefing Wednesday, referring to the underground selling price of 7,512 cans of “Red Horse Extra Strong Beer”, seized after the search which also yielded improvised bladed weapons, more than PHP50,000 cash, playing cards, mobile phones and laptop computers, as well as sachets of suspected shabu.

Catapang took over as BuCor chief following President Ferdinand R. Marcos’ order to place Director General Gerald Bantag under indefinite preventive suspension following the death of Jun Villamor, an inmate who was allegedly a “middleman” contacted to hire the gunmen who killed journalist Percival “Ka Percy Lapid” Mabasa last Oct. 3.

Catapang said the contraband was voluntarily surrendered by prison gang leaders following a dialogue.

Last Saturday, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla bared the results of a second autopsy by Dr. Raquel Fortun on Villamor’s remains which suggested he died by suffocation and had tested positive for illegal drugs.

A sibling of Villamor under the witness protection program (WPP) claimed her brother called her from behind bars two hours before he turned up dead.

Catapang said 13 individual persons of interest in the Percy Lapid-Jun Villamor case from BuCor including one inmate from Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Palawan have been secured . (PNA)