Drug lords are offering a P50 million bounty for the head of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre after he refused to take a huge bribe, the justice chief said in an interview Wednesday.

Speaking to ABS-CBN News Channel, Aguirre said over 300 members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force have taken over the security posts at the New Bilibid Prison Wednesday.

This is in line with the Duterte administration's bid to eliminate alleged drug rings in the national penitentiary. He said the SAF troopers have undergone special training for their new mission.

"[The takeover] could take months, actually, because we are going to take out every guard and almost all employees except those that are indispensable in the running day-to-day activities of the [Bureau of Corrections] and all of them will undergo training, more than 200 of them and re-education," he said.

A full search will be conducted today in the cells of the drug lords and the maximum security area.

"For this morning's takeover, all these drug lords, more than 53 of them, will be taken out of Building 14 for the 'Galugad' which we are going to conduct," he said.

Aguirre said he had received information that drug lords tried to pool their resources to offer him a P100 million bribe. This is the same amount allegedly given by drug lords to officials of the Department of Justice and National Bureau of Investigation in the last election, he claimed.

"Big drug lords have already wanted to pool their resources so they can offer me P100 million but they could not offer me because I can't be corrupted and so they hired somebody to kill me for P50 million. The threat is very fresh," he said.

The justice secretary said he has come to the conclusion that the Bureau of Corrections is the "most corrupt organization in the bureaucracy", based on his own interviews with former BuCor officials, security guards and even inmates.

"Every aspect of life inside the bureau is turned into a money-making venture even the sale of cigarettes. One stick of cigarette will cost you 150 pesos. I could not believe the corruption," he said.

He also said the drug trade in the country runs in the billions of pesos, with the narcotics being made in China or cooked onboard ships in the high seas. The narcotics cargo is then thrown overboard, equipped with GPS trackers, so that the contraband can be retrieved by local drug syndicates.

NEW BUCOR CHIEF

Aguirre earlier said Marine Major General Alexander Balutan will avail of early retirement in order for him to assume the post of Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director-General.

Balutan landed news headlines in 2005 for defying former President Gloria Arroyo's Executive Order (EO) No. 464 barring government officials and personnel from testifying in congressional inquiries without her clearance and permission.

Balutan and his then superior, Brigadier General Francisco Gudani, appeared before a Senate hearing and testified about alleged cheating in Mindanao in the 2004 presidential elections. He was court-martialed but the charges against him proscribed in two years even before he was brought to trial.

Colonel who defied Arroyo is 'outstanding soldier'