Munti cellphone syndicate raking it in, Perez reveals

Sometimes, crime is a calling.

Though behind bars, certain inmates at the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa still call the shots in their criminal activities – thanks to the cellular phone.

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez said yesterday he has stumbled into the smooth operations of several inmates after a recent raid of the jail cells yielded more cells — cell phones, that is.

"It’s really hard to admit it but it’s true. So every now and then, I order prison officials to conduct raids of the cells," says Perez, who disclosed that as many as 60 cell phones were confiscated after the latest raid.

"Imagine, every time they conduct these raids, they recover at least 60 cell phones from these cells. After one week, they’re back again," Perez said.

He said convicted drug traffickers are still able to conduct business inside their cells, the trade being very lucrative.

"This should not happen because the prisoners even use their cell phones for their criminal activities while already in jail," he said.

Perez conceded this would not have been possible without the collusion of jail guards, and thus ordered the rotation of duty of certain guards.

Perez said inmates caught with the smuggled phones will receive certain sanctions, which he did not specify.

"We will be more strict. We will punish both the guards and the prisoners," he stressed.

Early this week, Mayor Ronnie Tena Mitra of Panukulan town in Quezon province was arrested for the possession of shabu worth P1 billion. Also arrested in the drug bust was William Yao, 24, a native of Fookien, China and his security aides Javier Morilla and Roel Dequilla.

President Arroyo herself told leaders of the Filipino-Chinese community during a dialogue at Malacañang that she has reason to believe that even convicted kidnappers, some of them already on death row but appealing their convictions, are still conducting their criminal activities.

The President directed jail officials to put five death convicts in solitary confinement to prevent them from running their syndicates from inside their prison cells.

After all, with the cell phone, the calling to do more crime may just be too hard to resist. — Marichu Villanueva