9 prisoners die, 1 missing

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines  — The maximum security compound and the infirmary buildings of the Leyte Regional Prison in Abuyog town of Leyte were razed by fire at 3:55 p.m. Thursday that lasted until 9 p.m., or about six hours after.

Police said nine charred bodies of 11 prisoners, earlier reported missing, were recovered as of yesterday morning, leaving at least two others still unaccounted for as of press time, although LRP sources reported that only one was recorded missing.

The maximum security compound has a capacity of only 600, but it was occupied with 1,256 prisoners and, after the fire, only 1,245 were accounted for as confirmed survivors, or 11 of them were “missing.” With the recovery of nine bodies however, there were two who remained unaccounted for.

Chief Superintendent Asher Dolina, Police Regional Office-8 director, told The FREEMAN nine bodies were retrieved from the scene, and reports from the policemen, dispatched by Senior Supt. Franc Simborio, director of the Leyte Police Provincial Office, stated that no inmates were reported to have escaped from the LRP area.

"So far that is the only update we received this morning considering that we understand the situation inside while conducting its investigation on the real cause of the fire, and the amount of damage to properties. Wala pa kaming natatanggap," Dolina explained.

"Actually my men are there and I am still waiting for the entire and clear report of casualties, kung meron pa, then let us see", Simborio added.

LRP officials refused to confirm whether these “missing” inmates escaped the prison facility or killed by fire. Its acting jail superintendent Geraldo Aro had refused yet to talk to the media, but sources said it was because investigation by the Bureau of Fire Protection personnel was still going on inside the compound.

Abuyog Fire Department Deputy Chief Junrey Ong said in a phone interview they have not received reports that some inmates escaped during the fire. He added that the survivors from the MSC building were brought to the nearby but also congested minimum security building. The LRP has seven buildings.

A source from the LRP added that the patients confined at the infirmary were moved out before it caught fire later in the evening. They were brought to the houses, or kubols, of minimum security prisoners, and are now safe from harm.

Leyte’s 5th district Representative Jose Carlos Cari also told The FREEMAN he got report from LRP that, as of 10 a.m. yesterday, fire investigators could not yet enter the razed building because it was still too hot to breach. Investigators surmised that the remaining missing prisoners could be there inside, he said.

Cari assured the people, living near the LRP, that they were safe. “The police and military are there to beef up security and ensure the remaining inmates cannot escape," he said in a phone interview.

Some LRP guards who refused to be identified, said there were 12 high-profile Chinese nationals, convicted of drug cases, occupying the MSC, but they could not definitely say they were among the survivors.

The fate of another jailed convict, the controversial SPO4 Adonis Dumpit of Cebu City, was also unsure although sources said his name was not on the partial list of casualties or missing prisoners.

The names of the fatalities have not yet been released, as of yesterday afternoon, as LRP officials still refused to talk to reporters, and even barred anxious families of some inmates, waiting outside the gate, to enter the compound.

Initial findings from fire probers indicated that faulty electrical wiring was the possible cause of the fire that started near the toilet of Building 1 of the MSC, which then spread into the nearby infirmary.

Firefighters from the BFP, the SARS Team, the Tacloban Delta Volunteers and the Volunteers 929 Firefighters of Abuyog joined forces to put out the fire, which they were able to contain six hours after, according to lawyer Roy Percival Perez who was among the municipal fire volunteers.

Inspector Catalino Landia, chief of the Abuyog Police, said “faulty wiring” was recorded in the blotter, as the suspected cause of the fire. He added that the BFP initial assessment of damage to property was P2 million.

The LRP in Abuyog is one of the seven units under the Bureau of Corrections, an agency of the Department of Justice. Other operating units of BuCor are the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City, the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Puerto Princesa City in Palawan, the Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro, the San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm in Zamboanga City and the Davao Prison and Penal Farm. — with reports from Lalaine M. Jimenea (FREEMAN)