Arroyo orders crackdown on prison officials

A massive crackdown on prison officials was ordered yesterday by President Gloria Arroyo a day after a clandestine laboratory ma-nufacturing methamphetamine or shabu was discovered inside the maximum security compound of the national penitentiary in Manila.

"I am concerned by persistent reports of the use of illegal drugs in our prisons. I would like to announce that any prison official who abets the use of illegal drugs within his or her jurisdiction will be fired," said Arroyo.

The president has also ordered drug tests on prisoners as well as prison officials, to determine who will be placed under strict watch.

"I want prisoners and prison officials regularly checked for drug use and reports on this regularly submitted to my office," she said.

Last Thursday, Dionisio Santiago, Bureau of Corrections Director, uncovered a clandestine shabu plant in one of buildings housing Chinese inmates.

The inmates, all from mainland China, were earlier convicted of operating a large-scale illegal drugs laboratory in Metro Manila.

The plant was discovered after several inmates confessed the existence of the laboratory and how the drug traffickers operated in collusion with several prison officials at the national penitentiary, also called the New Bilibid Prison, in Manila's southern suburb of Muntinlupa City.

Inmates said raw materials for the manufacture of the crystalline shabu were sneaked into the compound at night with the connivance of prison guards.