MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) announced the relief on Monday of the officer-in-charge of the Parañaque City jail, along with five other jail guards for the duration of the investigation into Saturday’s escape of three Chinese drug offenders from the detention facility with the aid of a custodian.
Investigators of the Parañaque City police are looking into the possible involvement of other guards in the jailbreak after members of Task Force Quatro reviewed closed circuit television (CCTV) footage of the escape.
Among those relieved were Parañaque City jail officer-in-charge, Jail Senior Inspector Eric Agagon, and five of his men, who were on duty at the time Jail Officer 1 Richard Sillatoc allegedly facilitated the escape of Chinese inmates and drug suspects: Chan Tong Lou, Wai Leung, and Long Zong.
Among those relieved from their posts were JO1 Jesus Baguinon and JO2 Jimmy Zapata, respectively the gate guard and the desk officer on-duty. Others were Senior Jail Officer 3 Benjamin Olimen, the officer of the day; JO1 Gleson Gumabay, the 3rd floor duty guard; and JO2 Julius Dizon, who was supposed to be the desk officer but was absent at the time of the jailbreak.
The Parañaque City police investigation section head, Chief Inspector Enrique Sy, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that Sillatoc had been the designated “food buyer” of the jail guards so his colleagues had no reason to be suspicious of his bringing in rice and bulalo (bone marrow soup).
Sy said that based on the CCTV footage, at around 2:30 a.m., Saturday, Sillatoc had momentarily turned off the lights while he was preparing the food he had bought for his co-workers. He then turned the lights back on before calling his colleagues to eat.
He added, “While Baguinon and Zapata ate, he noticeably did not eat and just watched the other jail guards take their meal.”
After making sure that his colleagues had eaten, Sillatoc proceeded to the fourth floor and was seen cutting the television cables. He then disappeared from the view of the security camera and shadows of four men were observed to be proceeding towards the roof top.
The Parañaque City police chief investigator told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that they have been looking into the involvement of the other jail guards with most of them claiming that they neither heard nor saw anything even if they were only several meters from the cell from where the Chinese inmates escaped.
Sy pointed out that one of the duty guards, who had consumed the emetic-laced bone marrow soup, was seen on the CCTV footage ascending to the fourth floor and repairing the cable that had been cut.
“Sillatoc must have been offered a very large amount of money to have helped spring the detainees from the facility,” he said.
He assured that tracker teams had a lead to the possible whereabouts of Sillatoc, who has been slapped with a criminal charge of infidelity in the custody of prisoners.
The three Chinese fugitives are suspected big-time drug traffickers who were nabbed February this year in a buy-bust operation along Dona Soledad Avenue in Parañaque City, which led to the confiscation of some P1 billion worth of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride).