Convicted drug lord escapes from guards

Investigators from the Manila Police District (MPD) were able to extract the truth from three prison guards who earlier claimed that a convicted drug lord in their custody was abducted by armed men in Ermita, Manila on Monday.

Thorough investigation revealed that prisoner Henry Co escaped from the guards’ custody after they allowed him to sleep with his wife in another room at a Makati hotel.

Prison guards Benny Rago and July Silva and Marshall Hilario Diomampo of the Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro initially told Manila police that they were escorting prisoners Co and Al Navarro to the San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm in Zamboanga City when armed men on board two cars blocked their path and at gunpoint abducted Co and drove away.

Superintendent Arturo Paglinawan said further investigations, however, showed that no such abduction took place in Ermita.

When confronted with witnesses that no abduction incident happened in Ermita, the guards broke down and related the true incident.

The guards admitted that the group spent the night in Asturias Hotel in Estrella street in Makati City. The three guards occupied one room, while Co and his wife occupied another.

The next morning, the guards found out that Co and his wife were gone, so they decided to concoct another story.

Paglinawan turned over the three prison guards and the remaining prisoner to Bureau of Corrections chief Vicente Vinarao for further investigation.

The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology’s regional office in Zamboanga, however, said it has no knowledge of the reported transfer of a detainee to the farm colony.

BJMP spokesman Jail Officer 2 Belsie Agustin said the case is under the Department of Justice. — With Roel Pareño