JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on Thursday vowed to look into the disclosure of a person deprived of liberty (PDL) who claimed that high-profile inmates inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City did not succumb to COVID-19 but were actually “murdered.”

“We just want evidence to be there if there will be allegations. Yun lang naman yun. Witness testimony can be credible; we have to test it. Pero we have to find out what really happened. Kung meron talagang kailangan pag-aralan, pag-aralan natin. We are not turning our back on the facts that may be there before us. Wala tayo tinatalikuran,” Remulla said in a chance interview.

In a report by GMA’s “24 Oras,” PDL Rodel Tiaga bared how several high-profile inmates were allegedly killed at the NBP. The inmates who were killed were officially reported to have died from COVID-19.

Among those supposedly killed was convicted drug dealer Eugene Chua, who died in 2020 due to cardiopulmonary arrest.

Tiaga claimed that he witnessed how Chua was killed inside the national penitentiary’s Site Harry by two fellow inmates by suffocating him with a plastic bag.

Tiaga said he got scared to disclose what happened as he feared for his own safety.

Meanwhile, Remulla said that Tiaga’s revelation had inspired more witnesses to come forward with new evidence.

“Marami nang nagpupunta sa office, nagpaparating ng word na mayroong balitang ganito. So little by little, until we get the name of the person, then we have them interviewed properly. We have to go to the process,” Remulla said in a chance interview.

Nonetheless, Remulla said that he’s now waiting for the official report from the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on their investigation into the mysterious deaths of these high-value inmates.

“I’m waiting for the report, the official report, so I can act accordingly. Unless the NBI naman can file cases if they see something that has to be filed,” Remulla said.

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Hector Lawas