Jail warden, nurse sacked for inmates' escape: City officials to probe into "sub-standard construction" of jail

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines -- While city officials wanted to investigate on the allegedly sub-standard materials used in constructing the jail building, the BJMP has relieved from their posts, City Jail warden Josephus Jiliangao and jail nurse Rocky Jimenez.

The BJMP transferred Jiliangao to Cebu City and let go of Jimenez for good, effective last week, due to the escape of two inmates, Exequiel Aniscal and Reynante Manito.

Jimenez was implicated in the incident since Aniscal and Manito managed to make a hole on the wall from the isolation cell into the nurse's office without Jimenez noticing it. The two inmates escaped the building through the window of Jimenez's office.

The city officials noticed the substandard construction of the City Jail building, after they saw that the hole in the wall, where the inmates went through, had no steel bars or it must be that the reinforcing steel bars were too loose from each other.

The jail was constructed in the 1990s, and its substandard materials were only discovered during the recent escape of Aniscal and Manito.

Aniscal has been facing robbery with homicide charges that had been dragging in court for decades already, while Manito was facing robbery with intimidation and attempted rape cases.

Senior Jail Officer 3 Ligory Oracion said no personnel was monitoring the CCTV camera and all they could do was review the footage afterwards. Moreover, the guards on duty were stationed at the second floor where they had no vantage point to see the escapees reaching the fence by following the edges of the building.

The other inmate who was left alone inside the isolation cell tried to alarm the guards, but the guards reportedly saw the padlock was intact. It was only later that they realized that the escapees made a hole through the other side into the nurse's office.

There were even reports that some guards were asleep when Aniscal and Manito managed to leave the jail compound at around 1:30 a.m. of July 26.

While Oracion said they already coordinated with the police in hunting down the two escapees, BJMP teams were already spread out to areas where Aniscal could ran to, such as Jagna, Maribojoc and Panglao towns where he has relatives.

There were reports that in his past cases, Aniscal had escaped twice from his escorts during the court hearings. Before his jailbreak from the City Jail lately, he bolted the Bohol District Jail in May last year.

Provincial officials have yet to decide on whether to offer a reward again for the recapture of Aniscal and Manito. (FREEMAN)