Manila: More than 300 elite personnel of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (SAF) were deployed at the national penitentiary to stop imprisoned drug lords from continuing their illegal drug trade, senior officials said.

Some 320 SAF members replaced 200 security guards of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Metro Manila’s suburban Muntinlupa City, said Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Wednesday, adding, “The Marines will take over the SAF post after two months. We want to make sure that there will be no familiarisation between security men and prisoners at NBP.”

“NBP’s 200 guards will undergo training and will be reassigned to other penal colonies nationwide,” said Aguirre.

Fifty-three inmates, including 19 high-profile convicted drug lords, were transferred to two buses when members of the PNP Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) searched NBP’s Building 14 for contraband items, said Aguirre.

In a raid at NBP in December 2014, former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima found out that the cell of convicted drug lord Peter Co had a sauna; his imprisoned assistant Jojo Baligad had a jacuzzi; and convicted Herbert Colangco had a music studio. He was reported to have been going out of jail to hold rock concerts. All 19 convicted drug lords were transferred to the jail of the Manila-based National Bureau of Investigation in late 2014, and were brought back to NBP’s Building 14 in August 2015.

“The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) is the most corrupt agency in the entire bureaucracy. Officials of the justice department and BuCor received more than P100 million (Dh8.33 million) in bribes last year,” said Aguirre. He did not give details.

“Drug lords offered P50 million (Dh3.33 million) for my head after I refused a P100 million (Dh8.33 million) bribe,” Aguirre added.

Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte identified Co and Golangco, husband of a vice mayor in southern Philippines, as top drug lords who have continued their illegal operations while inside the state penitentiary.

In a meeting with alleged drug lord Peter Lim who surrendered to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) regional office in Davao City, southern Philippines on July 16, Duterte said, “If I’m able to prove that you are a drug lord, I will finish you off.”

Drug lords have allegedly raised P1 billion (Dh83.3 million) for Duterte’s head.

Trade of illegal drugs such as methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu), marijuana, ephedrine, and methylenedioxy methamphetamine (MDMA or Ecstasy) in the Philippines reached US$8.4 billion in 2013, reports said.

Nine Chinese drug cartels, the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel, West African, and North Korean drug syndicates have been smuggling drugs into the Philippines for transshipment to Asian countries. They have used overseas Filipino workers as drug mules. Chinese drug syndicates have rented apartments, condominiums, houses in private subdivisions, and warehouses to manufacture shabu in the Philippines.

The Philippines has become a trans-shipment point and a key producer of synthetic drugs for all of Asia, the Manila-based Pacific Strategies & Assessments said in a 2009 report. The Philippines has the highest rate of shabu abuse, said the 2011 UN Drug Report. In a micro-level, about 20.51 per cent or 8,629 villages out of 42,065 villages nationwide are plagued with drug menace. About 92.10 per cent of villages in Metro Manila; and 33.78 per cent of villages in southern Luzon have drug problems.