BuCor still investigating which version of Cataroja’s escape story is true
Bureau of Corrections
MANILA, Philippines — Did maximum security inmate Michael Cataroja escape New Bilibid Prison (NBP) by casually walking out of the facility or clinging underneath a garbage truck?
On Monday, Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. said the agency still verifies the true versions.
“Iniimbestigahan pa natin yan baka ma-wow mali tayo dyan kasi yung version niya una tumakas daw siya sumabay lang siya sa mga bisita [palabas], ngayon truck naman” Catapang said in an interview on Radyo 630.
(We are still investigating this; we could be wrong because his version of stories keeps changing. At first, he said he got away by joining a crowd of NBP visitors from leaving the facility, and yesterday he told us that he escaped via garbage truck.
According to the BuCor chief, the board of inquiry (BOI) tasked to investigate how Cataroja escaped is authenticating the latest version of his prison break story in preparation for the Senate inquiry scheduled on August 22, probing the circumstances surrounding the inmate’s supposed death and eventual escape.
“Baka bukas sa Senate hearing iba na naman ang version niya magkakagulo tayo. Sinisigurado namin, kailangan 100 percent totoo talaga sinasabi nitong si Cataroja,” he added.
(His story could change again tomorrow during the Senate hearing. If that happens, then that would be a mess. We are making sure that his latest version is 100 percent accurate.)
On August 20, BuCor released a video of Cataroja reenacting how he escaped NBP by inserting himself in a space underneath the truck. He showed this before the board of inquiry organized by Catapang and BuCor officials.
Two days prior, last August 18, a police official revealed in a radio interview that Cataroja casually got out of NBP as he joined visitors leaving the facility last month. Based on the latter’s claim, he found a person of his height and used a pen to copy NBP’s stamp for its visitors.
Last August 17, BuCor confirmed that Cataroja was alive and was rearrested by Angono police personnel in Rizal. He was turned over to the NBP on August 18.
