GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 16 Jan) – Police have launched a manhunt against six of seven inmates who bolted from a detention facility of a community police precinct here early Thursday.
Supt. Ruel Berango, deputy city police director for operations, said the inmates escaped from the police station No. 05 in Barangay Tambler here past 1 a.
m. by sawing off the steel bars of its detention cell.
“They destroyed the protective steel bars near the roof portion and eventually escaped through the back portion of the police precinct,” he said.
He said policemen assigned at the precinct only discovered the breakout 30 to 45 minutes after it happened.
As of Thursday afternoon, the police official said six of the seven escapees have remained at-large and the subject of a manhunt by its tracker team.
The seventh escapee, who was identified as robbery suspect Alvin Aguilar, surrendered to the tracker team at noon.
Berango identified the fugitives as robbery suspect Roger Noynay, murder suspects James Cadatuan and Tony Boy Mañalac, rape suspect Junrex Dose and suspected illegal drug couriers Rodel Landuyan and Datu Ayob.
The official said two other inmates, who were identified as Nisal and Edgar Amil, were left at the detention cell after refusing to join the escapees.
He said the two were mauled and hogtied by the seven other inmates before bolting the facility.
The police station’s chief, Senior Insp.
Patrich Elma, and his two other subordinates were relieved immediately, Berango said.
But Berango said they were assigned to join the tracker team, which was ordered to recapture the remaining fugitives “as soon as possible.”
Insp. Armin Vasquez, the police station’s newly-assigned acting head, said they are now investigating how the escapees were able to get hold of the saw.
He said they initially limited the visits for the other inmates pending their ongoing investigation.
