5 boys, who escape Argao center, caught in Cebu City

Five boys,who escaped from the Regional Rehabilitation Center for the Youth (RRCY) in Argao town in southern Cebu, were caught inside a makeshift house under the Forbes Bridge in Barangay San Nicolas in Cebu City, where drug paraphernalia were also found.

PO1 Ronald Daño of the San Nicolas Police Station said that the five boys, who are children in conflict with the law, were with three men, whom police believed were allegedly using drugs.

Daño said they went to the area after they received a report of three men and the boys allegedly using illegal drugs inside the makeshift house.

He said that they caught the boys, whose ages range from 14 to 17, in a huddle with the three men inside the house.

“Kining mga bata-ana, napriso ni sila ngadto sa Argao nga Rehabilitation for the Youth. Naa niy mga kaso nga theft ug uban pa,” said Daño.

(These kids were staying in Argao at the Rehabilitation Center for the Youth. They have cases like theft and others.)

Daño said that they only found drug paraphernalia inside the makeshift house but they could not find any illegal drugs.

Senior Insp. Allan Rosario, Chief of the San Nicolas Police Station, said in an interview on Sunday that the boys escaped from the RRCY last Saturday evening, took a bus from Argao to Cebu City, and did not pay the fare when they arrived in the city.

Rosario said that the RRCY uniform of one of the boys gave away their identities as “escapees” of the Argao facility.

Aside from that, he said that they were also looking at one of the boys’ claims that there were eight of them who escaped and that the three others, who did not go with the five of them, had not been caught yet.

He said that the boys would be turned over to the RRCY in Barangay Kalunasan in Cebu City before they would be returned to the RRCY in Argao town.

“Because of their actions, their penalties would increase, and they would have to stay longer in the facility. These kids did not take that into consideration when they escaped,” said Daño.

Meanwhile, the three adult suspects, identified by Daño as Arturo Verame, Jr., Rexan Canoño, and Benjie Marianeto, denied that they were involved in illegal drug activities.

Canono and Verame were Carbon market “porters” (kargador) while Marianeto was a scavenger.

They claimed that they were just resting in the house after a hard day’s work.

They also claimed that the boys were allegedly using drugs in the house.

But Rosario said that the three suspects would be detained at the police station pending the filing of charges.