Manhunt on as suspect in ’09 Agusan kidnapping escapes jail
TANDAG CITY, Surigao del Sur – Police have intensified a manhunt for the leader of a Manobo clan accused in a high-profile kidnapping in 2009 who escaped from a jail facility here on Sunday.
Joebert “Ondo” Perez, 33, and another inmate, Babring Tejero, 35, escaped from the Surigao del Sur District Jail by sawing off the steel bars at the back portion of their detention cell in the early hours on Sunday, according to Supt. Martin Gamba, spokesperson of Caraga regional police.
“Accordingly, they climbed through the concrete perimeter fence near the visiting area and leaped out unnoticed by the guards on duty,” said Gamba.
Perez, who is facing kidnapping, serious illegal detention and robbery charges, was tagged as the leader in the abduction of 75 teachers and students of a village school in Prosperidad town, in Agusan del Sur last December 2009. That incident was sparked by a long-running bloody feud with the head of another Manobo clan in the municipality. Tejero on the other hand, is facing kidnapping and illegal detention charges.
Their escape was only discovered when the jail office of the day conducted a head count on the inmates around 7 a.m., Gamba said.
Surigao del Sur Gov. Johnny Pimentel said he has ordered an investigation into the incident.
“I will relieve the warden,” Pimentel said in a text message to the INQUIRER.
The former militiaman’s latest caper came just a month after his relative, 18-year old Regie “Ken-Ken” Perez, who was arrested for pulling off a similar crime in April last year, sneaked out of the Regional Rehabilitation Center for the Youth in Butuan City with three other inmates. The younger Perez surrendered to local officials days after his escape.
