15 inmates bolt Cotabato City jail

COTABATO CITY , Philippines  – Fifteen inmates, three of them notorious guns-for-hire implicated in high-profile killings here, bolted the city jail Thursday night, the worst jailbreak here ever.

The local jail warden, Senior Inspector Arab Panga, said the inmates escaped one after the other through the front gate of the detention facility, along a busy street in the city’s main commercial district.

The small entrance to the city jail, located on the banks of the Rio Grande de Mindanao, is the only way to get in and out of the prison, which was designed for only 50 inmates but now houses more than a hundred, including women offenders.

“They (escapees) subdued and disarmed the guard, but did not take with them the guard’s service rifle,” Panga said.

Panga said several inmates wrestled with the guards while the wife of one of the escapees was leaving the jail through its only gate.

Panga was referring to inmate Samson Sabpa, whose wife, who is still a minor, was at the city jail during the jailbreak.

“That visitor may have connived with the inmates who escaped. She is now in our custody because she failed to escape during the melee,” Panga said.

The escapees have pending drug trafficking, robbery, gunrunning and other criminal cases in the local courts.

Three of the inmates, suspected guns-for-hire Rarim Rakman Kanakan, Dalami Nasser Labing and Kasim Moctar Usman, were implicated in the killings of several city residents.

Panga said police are now helping the city jail track down the escapees, all ethnic Maguindanaons.

Philippine National Police chief Director General Jesus Versoza instructed Chief Superintendent Fidel Cimatu, Central Mindanao police director, to assign an augmentation group to the city jail. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe