Five prisoners escape Compostela jail; guard on duty under investigation
Five inmates who escaped from the Compostela Police Station holding cell early yesterday morning are now the subject of a manhunt.
Giovanni Tapayan, 40; Joel Cuyos, 33; Rubin Catipay, 19; and Nelson Agbay from Compostela; and Joseph Pio Mahinay, 33, of Liloan escaped by cutting the grills of the window using a hacksaw at around 5:20 a.m.
SPO2 Jaime Maroliña, the jail guard on duty and desk officer of Compostela Police Station, is under investigation.
“Ato pa g’yud giimbestigar kon giunsa ug asa nakakuha’g para putol sa bar ang mga piniriso. Gipaubos na sad nato sa imbestigasyon ang desk officer,” Compostela Police Station chief Senior Insp. Romeo Caacoy Jr. said.
(We are looking into how the escapees were able get a tool to cut the bars.)
According to PO2 Larry Fernandez, assistant team leader of Compostela Police Station, Tapayan, Cuyos and Mahinay are facing drug-related cases, while Agbay was detained for illegal gambling and Catipay for violation of anti-fencing law.
Fernandez said Maroliña only discovered the jailbreak when he conducted a head count before going off duty and turning over the shift to the next desk officer and jail officer.
Chief Inspector Gerard Pelare of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) said that a composite team from the Public Safety Company and Investigation led by Supt. Mina Domingo was immediately sent to Compostela yesterday morning to help Compostela police in the manhunt operation.
Pelare added that Caacoy is also under investigation and faces possible relief.
Caacoy said there are 38 prisoners currently detained at their holding cell, which is intended for only eight detainees.
Moreover, their manpower has been decreased as some officers were sent to augment security for the ongoing summit meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Pelare said CPPO Director Senior Supt. Eric Noble was alarmed over the jailbreaks that have been happening in the different police stations in the province.
Last March 21, two detainees at the Liloan Police Station also escaped using trash to trick police.
Congestion
Meanwhile, there will be no letup in the arrest of offenders despite the congestion of jail facilities.
Police regional director Chief Supt. Noli Taliño said the police cannot stop doing what they are supposed to do just because jails are overcrowded.
“We have to carry out our mandate. If the jails are congested, then local government units should do something, perhaps construct new and bigger jails,” he said.
Congestion has been seen to have triggered the riot at the Cordova jail last month. Despite the lack of detention facility, Taliño asked the police station chiefs not to put female detainees in the same stockade as the male inmates.
“That is prohibited. If there are only few female detainees, then the police could take them out of the detention cell. The bottom line is female detainees should not stay on the same cell with men,” he said.
Arvin Odron, director of the Commission on Human Rights in Central Visayas (CHR-7), said detainees, like any other human being, have their rights which the government must protect.
However, Odron admitted jail congestion is really a problem, not just in Cebu but in all detention facilities and jails throughout the country.
“I know the government is doing its best to address the problem. I can’t say that the human rights of inmates are violated. But there’s just a need to construct additional facilities for them,” he said.
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