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Monday, September 08, 2003
No guards at tower: captured escapee
By Mia E. Abellana
CEBU -- A recaptured escapee from the Cebu City jail told investigators Sunday there were no guards at the jail tower when he and two others bolted from prison.
Fugitive Allan Maldo's freedom was short-lived. Operatives from the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau (CIIB) caught up with him Saturday night, less than 24 hours after he escaped from jail.
Maldo, who escaped with Fedelito Gabilan and Ramon Salomon from the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) Friday dawn, will also face three more cases. If convicted, he'll spend more time in jail on top of his seven-year sentence for robbery.
According to CIIB Chief Paul Labra II, Maldo tried to stab PO3 Noel Nazareno using a kitchen knife, but the escapee was overpowered and disarmed.
The police also found a packet of suspected shabu in Maldo's pocket.
The CIIB will be filing charges of resisting arrest, possession of a bladed weapon and possession of illegal drugs against Maldo Monday.
Maldo denied trying to stab Nazareno and owning the shabu, although he admitted having a knife with him that time.
"I just found it on the ground, so I picked it up. I had no shabu, I had some medicine for my asthma," he said in Cebuano.
Maldo also said that he did not see any guards at the tower.
"Kung naa pa, dili ko mokatkat kay pusilon unya ko. Wala man gyud mibadlong," he told Sun.Star. (Had there been guards, I wouldn't go for the wall because I might be shot.)
Family visit
Two jail guards have been restricted to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) 7 headquarters after they were caught sleeping on the job, allowing the escape.
The BJMP central office also sent Supt. Nestor Velasquez Sr. last Saturday to take control of the BBRC from Chief Insp. Gledo Baroro.
At the sight of the two guards sleeping, Baroro punched the men and detained them inside the holding cell at the BBRC lobby.
After running away from the BBRC, Maldo said, they headed for Plaza Housing then split up. He proceeded to P. Burgos St. while Salomon and Gabilan went together.
Labra said that by now, the two must have gone separate ways.
Assets told CIIB that Maldo was in the area.
He headed straight home because he missed his two-year-old daughter and wife, who left him when he was jailed two years ago.
"Napungot lang gyud ko didto kay duha nako ka tuig didto sa prisohan. Gimingaw lang ko nila," he said. (I was angry. For two years I was in jail and I missed them.)
Tagged along?
However, Labra said that the three escapees actually went together to Veteran's Village in Lahug, where Gabilan is from.
The CIIB operatives missed them by minutes when they went there early Friday night.
Maldo also said that it was Salomon and Gabilan who planned the escape and that he just followed when he saw them climbing the wall.
"I was awake when I saw them climbing, so I followed," he said.
He was not sure what they used to cut an opening in the wire fence. There was already the opening when he reached the top, he said.
He also denied knowing Salomon and Gabilan because they were not from the same brigada.
Labra does not believe him. He said Maldo would have gone his own way the moment the three of them were outside the BBRC if he was not part of the plan.
Aside from Gabilan and Salomon, inmates Reil Bautista and Felix Al-os are also still at large. The Cebu City Police received information that the two had been killed in Mindanao. Sun.Star Cebu
(September 8, 2003 issue) |
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