Jail escapee caught aboard plane in Mactan
He almost got away.
A jail escapee from Masbate province was arrested aboard a plane that was set to depart for El Nido, Palawan last Wednesday.
Edgar Estonilo Jr., 47, was spotted at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) and taken into custody after being led out of the Air Swift flight T6-337.
Police had been pursuing Estonilo after he escaped from the Matiporon Provincial Jail in Masbate City last November 29.
Estonilo, a resident of Placer town, Masbate, was charged with murder after being implicated in a fatal shooting in Masbate about 10 years ago.
He insisted yesterday that he was innocent.
“Daghan man mi nga nagpundok unya kalit duna’y pinusilay unya usa ko sa gitudlo nga suspek (I was with a group of people when someone was shot and I was tagged as one of the suspects),” said Estonilo.
Estonilo was arrested last year but was able to escape. Investigators were looking into how he walked out of his cell without much of a problem.
Senior Insp. Noelie Laturnas, chief of the Opao Police Station in Mandaue City, said a jail guard from the Matiporon Provincial Jail in
Masbate jail guards coordinated with the Mandaue city police after receiving a tip that the fugitive was hiding in barangay Opao.
When police learned that Estonilo was planning to visit a relative in Palawan, they coordinated with the Aviation Security Unit at MCIA.
He was identified in the passenger manifested and made to get off the plane.
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