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Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Editorials: Guarding high-risk prisoners
The violent jailbreak attempt and later standoff at the Metro Manila Detention Center involving members of the Abu Sayyaf yesterday has proven again that guarding inmates with terrorist or fanatical bent requires more than ordinary vigilance from jailers.
It also shows that some elements of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) may not be up to it.
That a group of suspected terrorists led by Alhamser Limbong a.k.a. “Commander Kosovo” of the infamous Martin and Gracia Burnham kidnapping case was able to seize guns from jailers gives away the failure in the system of guarding high-risk prisoners.
But to be fair with the BJMP, other units with jail facilities are afflicted with the same malaise.
Remember the high-profile escape of alleged Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist network bomb maker Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi at the supposedly high-security jail inside the Philippine National Police headquarters in 2003?
While Al-Ghozi would be killed in a manhunt some three months later, the incident nevertheless raised some uproar and was a slap on the face of the Arroyo administration at a time when the international war against terrorism was on its peak.
The recent incident will surely bring into focus again the same questions raised in the Al-Ghozi case, more so because the Abu Sayyaf, just like Jemaah Islamiyah, is among the notorious groups linked to the hated Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.
If we were to grab at positive morsels, however, one can still give it to authorities for the restraint they exhibited by not blindly attacking the Abu Sayyaf holdouts in the standoff and deciding to opt for a peaceful resolution through negotiations.
Still, the call for an extraordinary vigilance and for improving the system in guarding high-risk prisoners in all jails should be made again.
Other high-profile suspects
The Metro Manila Detention Center incident may again bring attention to the manner suspects in high profile cases are being held in various jails, like those in Cebu.
The one that easily comes to mind is the so-called Shabu 11, or the 11 persons arrested during a raid on the so-called mega shabu laboratory in Umapad, Mandaue City who are detained in that city’s jail.
Consider, too, that there is a pending extradition petition for the supposed financier of the lab, Calvin de Jesus Tan, who may soon end up in one of our jails here.
While the Shabu 11 and Tan may not have the military training and bent of such groups as the Abu Sayyaf, they nevertheless have the resources to take advantage of the other weakness of our penal system: the presence of some corrupt jailers.
(March 15, 2005 issue)
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