Damaged door key to escape of 3 inmates

LEGAZPI CITY—Three inmates escaped from a police jail in Tabaco City, Albay, yesterday.

Senior Supt. Marlo Meneses, Albay provincial police chief, said Virgilio Bonaobra, 30, of San Roque, Tabaco City; Randel Ryan Carbonel, 38, of Mariroc, Tabaco City; and Mark Anthony Yacat, 23, of Virac, Catanduanes—all held on illegal drug charges—bolted jail around 5 a.m. by sawing off the metal bars of their cell.

Yacat, who was captured three days ago, was also charged with illegal possession of firearms.

Senior Insp. Darwin Asejo, deputy chief of the Tabaco City police, said initial investigation showed the escaped inmates destroyed the plywood cover of a door of the police station.

The door has been damaged by Typhoon “Glenda” in July 2014 and has not been repaired.

Investigators, he said, are studying footage taken by a closed-circuit television camera to retrace the steps of the inmates.

“We will try to investigate how the materials used in cutting the steel bars entered the detention cell,” he said.