Drug lord Jaybee Sebastian files criminal charges against De Lima

Jaybee Sebastian, a high-profile drug lord convicted in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), filed graft and criminal charges against controversial Senator Leila De Lima on Friday for her involvement in the illegal drug trade inside Bilibid.

Sebastian made the charges possible through the help of his wife, Roxanne, together with the cooperation of former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Ricardo Rainier Cruz and former NBP Superintendent Richard Schwarzcopf, Jr.

The following are the charges against the embattled senator:

1. violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act;
2. violations of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees;
3. violations of the Anti-Torture Act of 2009;
4. indirect bribery for allegedly requiring him to raise funds, through illegal drug trade;
5. receiving drug money and using the same for her senatorial bid;
6. announcing to journalists that he is a government asset; and,
7. allowing his transfer to the prison facility's Building 14 despite threats to his life.

"Because of De Lima's revelation that Sebastian was an asset, inmates in Building 14 [of the New Bilibid Prison] were enraged, thus his purported killing on September 28," Sebastian's attorney, Eduardo Arriba, said.

On September 23, 2016, De Lima claimed that Sebastian was a government asset and a few days later, the drug lord was injured in a stabbing incident inside Bilibid together with three other high-profile inmates.

During Sebastian's testimony on one of the sessions of the Bilibid probe, he revealed that De Lima ordered him and other drug leaders to sell illegal narcotics inside Bilibid for her own agenda.