Pasay City jail warden sacked

Pasay City jail warden Chief Inspector Isagani Gamino was ordered relieved from his post by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) following the bolting of 16 detainees from the jail over the weekend.

Gamino was replaced by Senior Superintendent Augusto Retumban. Gamino’s relief came after 16 inmates, mostly "juvenile delinquents," escaped from the jail last Saturday night.

The detainees escaped by sawing off the steel bars of their cell window. Three of the escapees, Christopher Marilag, Cesar Fajardo and Rafel de Oblea, were arrested during a subsequent manhunt operation conducted by the Pasay-BJMP and the Pasay police Sunday morning.

Three more detainees, identified as Joeven Ogayan, Eduardo Mortal and Anthony Leti, were recaptured Sunday night and yesterday morning.

The 10 remaining escapees, identified as Jeffrey Tan, Ociel Beltran, Errol Quino, Jonathan Nuñez, Joel Banaba, David Guttierez, Romy dela Cruz, Alvin Celebrado, Edgardo Bernade and Rowel Alba, are still at large.

Pasay congressional candidate Mina Gabor, former Department of Tourism secretary, expressed concern over news of the mass jailbreak.

Gabor noted the possibility that the escape might be part of a scheme by unscrupulous candidates to sow terror in the coming elections.

She pointed out that such jailbreaks often happen during election campaign periods when certain individuals in cahoots with prison officials "stage-manage" jailbreaks and later hire the escapees as "goons to terrorize voters."

Gabor called on the BJMP to investigate the jailbreak and ensure that all the escapees are recaptured.

Meanwhile in Valenzuela City, two days after a computer rental store lost several units of personal computers to robbers, a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) store was robbed in broad daylight yesterday.

Inspector Salvador de la Cruz, Jr. chief of the Valenzuela Station Investigation Branch (SIB), said eight armed men barged into the Metro North Gas Corp. located at 26 Lawang Baro, Valenzuela City at around 9:50 a.m.

Store manager Edcel Ayson, 36, told police that the store lost its earnings and the employees’ cash, jewelry and cellular phones amounting to approximately P250,000.

Investigation showed that one of the suspects posed as a customer. As security guard Edwib Mabao opened the steel door for him, three of the suspect’s cohorts came up from behind and poked their handguns at Mabao. The rest of the suspects then entered the store while pointing their guns at the terrified employees.

Six of the suspects proceeded to the office and took the store’s earnings as well as the employees’ aforementioned valuables. – Rainier Allan Ronda and Nikko Dizon