ONE of the two Bureau of Correction (BuCor) inmates who told a Muntinlupa city trial court of their intention to recant their testimonies linking former senator Leila de Lima to the illegal drugs trade has been transferred to the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City.
In a statement, the BuCor said the Muntinlupa City RTC Branch 206 granted the request of dismissed police inspector Rodolfo Magleo to be temporarily moved to the NBP’s minimum security compound.
It said Magleo’s transfer was made “Monday night.”
The BuCor said the court also ordered the transfer of another inmate and prosecution witness, former police sergeant Nonito Arile, who remains committed at the Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm (SPPF) in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro.
Magleo and Arile were among the NBP inmates who were transferred to the SPPF in July this year as part of BuCor’s effort to decongest the NBP and thwart high-risk inmates from continuing their illegal activities in the national penitentiary.
The agency has said that Magleo and Arile were among the 13 convicts who have allegedly continued illegal drugs trade activities inside Bilibid.
De Lima’s lawyer Boni Tacardon confirmed the Magleo’s and Arile’s transfers.
“The court directed their temporary custody to the NBP. Magleo is already there. Si Arile nasa Sablayan pa at ililipat pa lang sa NBP (Arile is still in Sablayan but he will be transferred to the NBP),” Tacardon said in a Viber message.
On Monday, Magleo handed De Lima a handwritten letter stating his and Arile’s supposed intention to recant their testimonies against the former secretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ) supposedly because they were being bothered by their conscience.
They asked De Lima to send her lawyers to Sablayan to finalize their retraction.
Magleo told the House of Representatives in 2016 that De Lima was paid millions of pesos to give preferential treatment to convict and drug dealer Jaybee Sebastian.
Arile on the other hand testified that De Lima had ties with Sebastian who allegedly set her up with Chinese drug lords detained inside the Bilibid.
Sebastian, who linked De Lima to the illegal drugs trade, died in 2020 in a series of mysterious deaths of drug convicts inside the national penitentiary at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Magleo was convicted in 2004 for kidnapping a veterinary student in 2001, while Arile was convicted for kidnapping and murder.
Prior to the announcement of Magleo and Arile of their intention, several prosecution witnesses have already retracted and withdrawn their testimonies against De Lima.
