Nico Baylosis, the third detainee who escaped the Mabolo Police Station detention cell, surrendered a day after he bolted jail with two others. | photo courtesy of Mabolo Police Station
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The third detainee of the Mabolo Police Station who escaped on Monday, October 26, 2020, surrendered to authorities this morning, October 27, 2020.
Nico Baylosis of Barangay Carreta, Cebu City told reporters that one of the reasons that he surrendered was the death of one of the escapees, Roberto Ludong, who was killed by policemen after he allegedly resisted arrest and fired a shot at the lawmen.
The other escapee, Oliver Basak, was earlier recaptured hours after the jailbreak.
Aside from the death of Ludong, Baylosis said he was also worried for his safety since aside from thinking of how to elude the authorities, he also had to look over his shoulder for his enemies outside jail.
“Usa sad nga nahadlok ko pero plano gyud ko nga mo surrender kay lisod kaayo dili gyud ko free… maong ni surrender ko,” said Baylosis.
(One [reason I surrendered was] I was scared, but I was already planning to surrender because it was so difficult since I was not really free … that is why I surrendered.)
Baylosis said he hid in areas in the barangay that he would seldom be if he was free.
He said what prompted him to escape was his personal problem.
He however did not elaborate.
Read: Jailbreak in Cebu City: One recaptured, one killed, one still at large
When asked how about his escape from jail, Baylosis said he it only took him and his cohorts six hours to break some of the iron grills of the detention cell using a saw hidden under one of the beds of the detainees.
Baylosis, Ludong and Basak were facing illegal drug charges and were waiting for the swab test results before they would be transferred to the Cebu City Jail when they bolted the detention facility at the Mabolo Police Station on October 26, said Police Major Juanito Alaras, Mabolo Police Station chief.
Meanwhile, Alaras said that even before Baylosis surrendered, Mabolo policemen were already conducting a manhunt against Baylosis.
The policemen also reached out to Baylosis family to help them locate the escapee.
Alaras said that the police were confident that they would eventually capture Baylosis given that the city would still require quarantine passes, which meant that Baylosis’ movements were limited.
“Maybe usa sa factor nga nisurrender na lang siya kay ang access ron sa mga tawo kinahanglan ta quarantine pass, naay checkpoint… very impossible nga maka gawas siya sa mga checkpoint kay na distribute naman ilang mga pictures, ” said Alaras.
(Maybe one of the factors that he surrendered is that access of the people would need a quarantine pass, we have checkpoints…It’s very impossible that he can escape the checkpoints because we already distributed their pictures.)
Alaras said the broken iron grills of the detention cell had already been fixed.
He also said that to ensure that there would be no repeat of the incident, policemen at the Mabolo Police Station would constantly check the detention facility./dbs