Duterte won't speak to Jaybee Sebastian

President Rodrigo Duterte has closed the door on the possibility of speaking to high-profile inmate Jaybee Sebastian, who had expressed his desire to talk only to the chief executive about his knowledge in the drug trade inside the national penitentiary.

Duterte made the pronouncement early Friday morning in Davao City after arriving from his official visit from Vietnam.

"I do not talk to criminals. He can go to the fiscal if he wants," said Duterte when asked if he would grant Sebastian an audience.

The convicted kidnapper was among three inmates hurt in a stabbing incident at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) earlier this week.

.

The incident comes after last week's House of Representatives hearing on the illegal drug trade inside the national penitentiary, where fellow inmates tagging Sebastian as running narcotics operations while linking him to Senator Leila De Lima. Duterte has tagged De Lima, his fiercest critic, allowing narcotics to proliferate inside the NBP while she was justice secretary.

De Lima has denied the links, saying that Sebastian was a government asset. Arriba declined to answer when asked if this was true.

After the stabbing, Sebastian's counsel Edgar Arriba said his client will speak about his knowledge of the drug trade only with Duterte.

According to Arriba, Sebastian suspects that Wednesday's attack may be related to the House probe.

But Duterte is not willing to lend a sympathetic ear.

"Sinasabi ko, hiningi ninyo lahat 'yan," he said. "I said, be careful what you wish for or what you want, because you might get it."

source:gmanews