Senate probes NBP inmate’s escape

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate will dig deeper into the escape of convict Michael Cataroja from the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), according to Sen. Francis Tolentino, who feared convicts may be enjoying a backdoor entry and exit from the national penitentiary to commit crimes.

In a dwIZ interview yesterday, Tolentino said the justice and human rights committee’s inquiry into NBP anomalies that will resume on Tuesday will focus on the security lapses that allowed Cataroja to casually walk out of the prison’s maximum security compound last July 7 pretending to be a visitor with a stamp pass.

“It is worrisome because it would appear that the Bilibid maximum security compound is not even secured, despite its numerous gates, CCTV cameras and armed guards. How was he able to slip past all that?” Tolentino said in Filipino.

The disappearance of Cataroja, who was rearrested in Angono, Rizal on Aug. 17, prompted authorities to suspect he was dumped in a septic tank, long believed to be used as a mass grave for murdered convicts.

Tolentino also found it suspicious that the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) and the gang leaders reported Cataroja’s disappearance on July 15, but police said Cataroja escaped the NBP as early as July 7.

Tolentino suspected that Cataroja may have had accomplices that allowed him to casually escape from the NBP.

Hired killers?

His escape may also be part of a long-suspected practice in the NBP of bringing out convicts to serve as guns-for-hire, so that killings go unresolved because the at-large assailants are serving sentences, Tolentino said.

This suspected practice in the NBP had inspired Erik Matti’s 2013 film “On The Job” about the use of convicts as hired killers by politicians serving in criminal syndicates.

“Cataroja may not even be the first one to do it. I fear that convicts are able to get out of Bilibid to carry out crimes, like (being) guns-for-hire, before going back inside,” Tolentino said.

Diversion

The senator viewed the findings that a bone recovered in the septic tank was a chicken bone, as a “comical twist” and a “diversion” from the real issues in the NBP, such as the entry of contraband like drugs and weapons.

He also viewed the resignation of BuCor deputy director Angelina Bautista – after Congress zeroed in on her links to alleged overpriced construction materials and irregularities in her catering business – as part of suspicious developments in the NBP.

During the Aug. 8 Senate probe, Bautista said she first resigned during the administration of sacked Bureau of Corrections chief Gerald Bantag when she was ordered to collect payoffs from convicted pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napooles and “drug queen” Yu Yuk Lai.

Bantag himself is facing murder charges for the death of broadcaster Percy Lapid, and for allegedly using NBP inmates to look for a gun for hire to carry out the crime.

“Bautista’s resignation, the chicken bone, the situation in Bilibid, the gang fights that left inmates dead without witnesses – these are all connected. This is no longer just about the septic tank,” Tolentino said.