Background and Overview of Issues
On September 9, 2019, the Philippine Senate held its fourth hearing on the Good Conduct Time Allowance Act (GCTA). At this hearing, Arsenio Evangelista, chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), revealed a shocking fact: drug lords in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in the Philippines continue to control drug trade inside and outside the prison through smuggled phones. https://www.silencejammer.com/mobile-jammer-cell-phone-blocker This issue not only highlights the loopholes within the Philippine prison system, but also exposes how the illegal drug trade continues through modern technology, while the signal jammers deployed by the government at a huge cost have failed to effectively curb this phenomenon. https://www.silencejammer.com/gps-jammer-blocker-car-signal
Challenges of the Drug War
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs has attracted widespread attention at home and abroad. https://www.silencejammer.com/However, Evangelista pointed out that if the problem of phone smuggling in Bilibid Prison is not resolved, Duterte's war on drugs may end in failure. According to Evangelista, about 80% of illegal drugs come from drug lords in the New Bilibid Prison. Although these drug lords are behind bars, they keep in touch with the outside world through illegally smuggled mobile phones and continue to control the circulation network of drug trafficking. This phenomenon is worrying and reveals major flaws in the management of the Philippine prison system.
During the hearing, Senator Panfilo Lacson shared his conversation with retired police general Benjamin Magalong. Magalong recalled the 2014 raid on Bilibid Prison and pointed out that the flow and trade of drugs are actually controlled from inside the prison. These drug lords give orders through smuggled mobile phones, which leads to the spread of drugs nationwide. Although the government has spent a lot of money to install signal jammers, it seems that it has not really stopped the use of mobile phones and the continuation of drug trafficking.
The price and market of smuggled mobile phones
In the New Bilibid Prison, the price of smuggled mobile phones is high. According to informants cited by Evangelista, the price of ordinary 2G and 3G mobile phones is as high as 500,000 to 700,000 pesos, while the price of high-end smartphones has climbed to 2 million to 2.5 million pesos. Behind these high prices, there is obviously a mature and lucrative black market industry chain. Prisoners continue to manage drug trafficking and criminal activities outside the prison through these phones, making mobile phones an extremely valuable and strategic tool inside the prison.
This phenomenon not only highlights the prevalence and importance of mobile phones in modern society, but also shows that regulatory loopholes inside prisons are being exploited by organized criminal gangs. The transaction of smuggled mobile phones involves not only prisoners inside the prison, but also may involve corruption among some prison administrators, which makes the problem more complicated.
Failure of signal jammers and management loopholes
Although the Philippine government has installed signal jammers inside Bilibid Prison in an attempt to block prisoners from using mobile phones, the effect of these jammers does not seem to be ideal. According to Evangelista, these jammers are turned off at certain times of the day to allow prisoners to continue using their phones. Such incidents show that there are obvious loopholes in the implementation of the mobile phone ban policy in prisons. This not only reflects the failure of technical means, but also suggests that there may be a certain degree of corruption or dereliction of duty within the prison management.