NBP to probe executive's slay

MANILA, Philippines - The New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City will conduct a parallel investigation into the death of its assistant director for security and operations, who was shot 10 times by hired killers in San Pedro, Laguna Friday, an official said yesterday.

“This is to help the police and whatever we find here we will give to them,” NBP Director Ernesto Diokno told The STAR over the phone.

Diokno said days before Rodrigo Mercado was killed, the assistant director told him he had been receiving death threats. “But he said he chose to ignore it because it’s part of his work,” he said, adding that he, too, had been receiving threats to his life.

Diokno said he has just spoken with National Bureau of Investigation Director Magtanggol Gatdula, who assured him the NBI will assist in the parallel investigation, which will be headed by the NBP’s intelligence unit.

Diokno said Mercado’s murder could be the work of drug syndicates affected by the stricter measures they imposed on NBP. He said they transferred at least 36 inmates to various penal colonies in the country after receiving reports of their alleged involvement in the brisk illegal drug trade in the NBP.

He and Rodrigo also tightened visitation rules and deployed patrols inside the compound to check on suspected shabu dealers.

Once their investigation is completed, they will submit it to the NBI and the police, Diokno said.

Mercado was driving alone along the national road in Barangay Poblacion last Friday when four armed men blocked his path and shot him. He was rushed to the Divine Mercy Hospital but was declared dead on arrival.

Superintendent Kirby Kraft, chief of the San Pedro police, told The STAR they are eyeing drug syndicates as the ones behind Mercado’s killing. He said he has already asked Diokno for a list of names of the convicts Mercado asked to be transferred to penal colonies.

A source privy to the investigation also said Mercado’s role in the exposé of the drug business in NBP is one of the angles eyed in the investigation. The source said information reached them that it was Mercado who used a hidden camera to document the illegal drug trade in the NBP, exposed on national television last month.