Solon gives hint on confidential House panel report on Bilibid probe?

A congressman might have inadvertently given the public a glimpse of the still confidential House justice committee report on the proliferation of drugs inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).

On Tuesday, Ako Bicol party-list Rep.Alfredo Garbin Jr., manifesting his dissent on the report, commented that the committee did not recommend the prosecution of individuals behind the drug trade inside the NBP.

"Based on findings and recommendations on the administrative as well as legislative matters, our point of objection is on the identification or definitive culpability of the officers involved in the proliferation of drugs in the New Bilibid Prison," said Garbin.

Garbin made the dissenting statement even after House panel chairperson and Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali had repeatedly invoked House rules barring the release of committee reports to the public prior to being calendared in plenary.

Umali would not even confirm if Sen. Leila de Lima, accused of having drug links inside the NBP while she was Justice secretary, would be among those being pinned down in the committee report.

Garbin, on the other hand, said, "Recommendations must be arrived on the prosecution of those accountable officers as well as personalities involved... [which are] conspicuously absent in the recommendations." 

"It is necessary to identify all those officials and personalities involved in the proliferation of drugs," Garbin added.

The party-list lawmaker added that he and other House panel members who voted "naye" would be filing their opposition with the House secretary general, which would then include it along with the committee report when it is forwarded to the plenary.

During the four days of hearings that ran for 47 hours, 22 witnesses took the stand and implicated in the drug trade former Justice Secretary and incumbent Senator Leila de Lima and several individuals connected to her, including former security aides and subordinates.

De Lima has repeatedly denied the accusations. — VVP, GMA News