High-profile Pangasinan drug suspect escapes again

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — A former staff sergeant of the defunct Philippine Constabulary, who is facing drug-related charges, slipped away from his two escorts after attending a court hearing in Dagupan City last Wednesday morning.

In a report to provincial administrator Virgilio Solis, retired Senior Superintendent Rogelio Paglingayen, officer-in-charge of the provincial jail, said the drug suspect, Jimmy Daru Lumna, 56, sought permission from his escorts — jail guards David Motas, 60, and Renato Mendejar, 59 — to urinate at about 10 a.m.

But when Mendejar removed his handcuffs, Lumna immediately ran away toward a nearby Muslim community.

The two jail guards lost track of Lumna and reported the incident to the nearby police precinct more than an hour later. Paglingayen learned about the escape at about 1:30 p.m.

Lumna, a native of Marawi City, first escaped on Dec. 5, 2002 but was recaptured on March 8, 2003.

He was recently sentenced to eight years in jail for car theft, and is being tried for drug-related cases. He is said to have links with international drug syndicates.

Following the escape, Solis instructed Paglingayen to place Motas and Mendejar under custodial investigation by the provincial intelligence unit led by Superintendent Noli Taliño.

Solis quoted the police as saying that the two jail guards would be subjected to a lie detector test by the National Bureau of Investigation.

If evidence warrants, Solis said administrative and criminal cases will be filed against the two and even Paglingayen.

Although Paglingayen remains as OIC of the provincial jail, Solis said Lumna’s escape dampened the plan to appoint him as provincial warden.

Paglingayen said two teams of seven members each have been deployed to re-arrest Lumna within 15 days. "We are doing our best to recapture Lumna," he said.

The former provincial jail warden was relieved from his post for the first escape of Lumna, among other reasons. — With Cesar Ramirez