Up to eight inmates yesterday fought at the Philippine national penitentiary, leaving a high-
profile Chinese drug lord dead and four other inmates injured, officials said.
The melee occurred amid a congressional investigation into the drug trade within the facility.
Philippine Secretary of Justice Vitaliano Aguirre II said a riot broke out after an inmate reprimanded three Chinese drug convicts who were using methamphetamine.
Aguirre identified the dead inmate as Tony Co.
He said Co and two other injured Chinese convicts are among the biggest drug traders in the country. Also injured was Jaybee Sebastian, a prison leader being asked by officials to testify in the congressional investigation against Philippine Senator Leila de Lima.
De Lima, a former secretary of justice, has said Sebastian was a tipster who gave her department information that led to a 2014 raid of the penitentiary. The raid exposed how high-profile convicts lived in air-conditioned villas equipped with hot tubs and disco lights. Guns, counting machines, cellphones and other gadgets were confiscated.
As former head of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, de Lima earned Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s ire for investigating his alleged links to death squads in Davao City, where he was mayor.
She also led a senate probe into Duterte’s anti-drug war that has left more than 3,000 suspected drug pushers and users dead.
Duterte has accused de Lima of collecting money from the illegal drugs trade operated by drug lords from the penitentiary — a charge de Lima calls “lies.”
Philippine Bureau of Corrections Director Rolando Asuncion said the seven to eight inmates involved in the riot are from two rival gangs.
The violence ended quickly and occurred in a contained area separate from the larger inmate population, he said, adding that it was not clear what kind of injuries the inmates sustained, but an ice pick and other items were confiscated.
De Lima yesterday expressed doubts that what happened was a real riot, saying the prisoners involved were those who refused to testify against her.
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