1.2 million cubic meters of soil dug up at NBP —Remulla

Around 1.2 million cubic meters of soil was removed at the excavation site in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Monday.

“Kasi ano, 1.2 million cubic meters were removed from the site and brought somewhere else,” Remulla said in a press conference.

Suspended Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Gerald Bantag initially said the excavation site was for a swimming pool and that it was funded by the Agua Tierra Oro Mina Development (ATOM) Corporation.

ATOM president Virgilio Bote, however, said the digging at the NBP was not part of the joint venture agreement with BuCor. Bote said Bantag had only asked for help to create the alleged swimming pool.

“With the amount of debris taken out and you only have one backhoe, kahit mag time and motion ka kasi hindi aabot ng one million cubic meters ang hinukay noon, kahit anong gawin mo,” Remulla said.

“So there was more equipment used and these were reported to be owned by ATOM,” he added.

Remulla said he also met with Bote.

“Well, they wanted to develop, he wanted to develop Bilibid into a real estate venture and replace it with land in Nueva Ecija that he owned. Basically ‘yun ‘yung kwento doon,” he said.

Remulla later said that Bantag told him the excavation was for hunting the Yamashita treasure.

Damage to government

When asked what kind of cases may be filed against Bantag, Remulla said he has asked his staff to look into it but there is “definitely damage to government” already.

“Definitely, may damage na sa government. Yung hukay na 'yan para ma fill up mo ulit will cause us a lot of money and a lot of time so there’s the damage already,” Remulla said.

“And if there’s any joint venture of BuCor, it has to be told to the Department of Justice kung meron silang ginagawa. so we will have our staff study all the possible violations of law that happened,” he added. — BM, GMA Integrated News