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Thursday, July 17, 2003
Jailers of JI's al-Ghozi, Sayyafs charged
MANILA -- Criminal charges were filed Wednesday in Quezon City against four policemen in connection with the July 14 escape of convicted terrorist Fathur Roman al-Ghozi and two Abu Sayyaf bandits, officials said.
Police officials admitted lax security enabled Jemaa Islamiyah (JI) terrorist al-Ghozi to escape from jail, evoking dismay from top anti-terror allies Australia and the United States.
The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) named Supt. Guillermo Danipog and Inspector James Dime, both duty officers of the PNP Intelligence Group; SPO3 Ruperto Principe, sergeant of the guard; and PO1 Ronald Palmares as respondents in a case for violation of Article 224 of the Revised Penal Code.
Al-Ghozi and Abu Sayyaf members Abdulmukim Edris and Mehran Abante were detained at the PNP-IG facility in Camp Crame.
Initial investigation found the respondents liable for the escape of al-Ghozi and the Abu Sayyaf gunmen, adding the three may have just walked out of their cells.
Under PNP regulations, serious neglect of duty is punishable by dismissal from the police service.
Police chief investigator Eduardo Matillano said one police guard was asleep and another was out shopping when al-Ghozi and two inmates from the Abu Sayyaf kidnap gang sauntered out from their cell.
A 'mystery'
The jail cells where the three were detained were "intact and sustained no damage," with padlocks still in place, Matillano said.
There were no video surveillance cameras and the guards did not perform their routine checks on the inmates on the eve of Monday's escape by the most senior JI operative in custody in Southeast Asia, added a grim-faced Matillano.
Al-Ghozi's escape prompted a region-wide security alert for fear of a fresh attack similar to the bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali last October that left 202 dead.
Matillano said it remained a "mystery" how the inmates were able to escape so easily, even as whispers of a conspiracy meant to embarrass President Arroyo made their rounds.
Police have intensified their operations for the capture of the three fugitives and are offering a total of P8 million for information leading to their arrest.
Spearheading the manhunt operations is the recently formed Task Force Pugante, headed by PNP-IG officer-in-Charge Senior Supt. Romeo Ricardo.
Aside from the four guards criminally charged with negligence, five others are under investigation.
Lax, complacent
"We have established that the detainees walked out of the detention cell, using a hallway going down the stairs to the ground floor, then walked out of the main gate to the road," Matillano said.
"The guards were lax in their duties," he added, complacent because al-Ghozi had been behaving himself since he was incarcerated last January on a 15-year sentence for illegal possession of explosives.
"The guard who was supposed to be there 24 hours a day was sleeping in the other room," Matillano said. "The lead guard was absent; he was not at his post at the time. He said he had gone somewhere to buy something and saw nothing unusual when he came back."
Al-Ghozi, who has confessed to his role in a wave of deadly Manila bombings in 2000 as well as of securing explosives in a plot to bomb Western embassies in Singapore, was held in the prison housed in the national police headquarters awaiting a decision on a government petition to have him transferred.
An investigative body is probing the circumstances that led to the escape, with Arroyo warning that those who may be found guilty of collusion will "suffer severely."
"We regret the negative repercussions of this incident and we shall get to the root of the matter," Arroyo said in a statement.
"If there was collusion, this is the gravest act against our national security done so far by persons within the government.""
Master of disguise
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Lucero urged the public to be on high alert, saying that al-Ghozi was a master of disguise who knows his way around Manila.
"He used to pass himself off as a dried fish vendor and a used clothes vendor. He knows several local dialects," Lucero said. "He is an expert in disguise and deception."
"We have sent operatives all over the country. We hope they are still in Manila because we have sealed all possible exits, airports and seaports," added Matillano, referring also to the two Abu Sayyaf guerrillas who escaped along with al-Ghozi.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer described the escape as "disappointing" and said any underestimation of the threat of JI in the region had been quashed by the escape of one of its key operatives.
Downer said the successful arrests and trial of those suspected in the Bali bombings may have overshadowed the threat the JI posed in the rest of the region.
US embassy spokesman Frank Jenista also expressed disappointment over the escape, which he said exposed the country to possible terrorist attacks.
"We expressed our disappointment at the escape...because we think it heightens the risk for all of us in the Philippines," Jenista said. AFP/Sunnex
(July 17, 2003 issue)
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