8 inmates escape from Leyte prison

TACLOBAN CITY — Police are now hunting down eight inmates who bolted the sub-provincial jail in Allen town Tuesday afternoon after briefly holding a jail guard at gunpoint.

Investigation showed that the two jail guards on duty, Godofredo Gumarao and Noble Calague, asked one of the escapees, Warlito Pajarito, to fetch water.

Pajarito, however, pulled out a caliber .45 pistol and threatened to shoot Calague whom he disarmed of his service shotgun.

The seven other escapees were identified as Gilbert Jackson, Jerry Halayhay, Salvador Manuel, Ricardo Ombrag, Joel Pajarito, Arturo Salino and Allan Tamoyan.

Police said Warlito Pajarito, Jackson, Salino and Tamoyan were members of a robbery-holdup gang that preyed on motorists along the Maharlika Highway in Samar. — Miriam Garcia Desacada