Four prisoners at the Pateros municipal police station escaped Sunday morning by sawing off two of their cell’s steel bars, according to a police official.
Inspector Tadeo Culang, Pateros police community relations chief, identified the escaped inmates as Rowel Labios, 27; Erwin Constantino, 24; Antonio Reyes, 35; and Teotemo Laderas, 39. All are residents of the town.
According to Culang, the duty detention officer in charge heard a commotion early Sunday morning.
Police Officer 1 Willex Daganta immediately conducted an inspection of the police cell and saw that someone had sawed off some of the bars, Culang said.
‘Dangerous’
Culang described the detainees as dangerous and urged the public to be on the lookout for suspicious-looking persons whom they might spot lurking near their houses.
Culang said that immediately after the duty detention officer reported the jailbreak, all members of the Pateros police station were ordered to track down the escapees.
Tracker teams were also deployed to go after the four prisoners, he added.
The police first started looking for the escaped inmates at the addresses listed in their records but failed to find them.
Station police operations head Superintendent Angel Sumulong has been ordered to lead the hunt for the four men, Culang said.
At the same time, he declined to elaborate on other efforts being undertaken by the police to avoid jeopardizing operations.
“We cannot disclose any more information because the investigation and the search are ongoing,” Culang explained.
He assured the public that once investigators piece together the accounts of witnesses and the circumstances behind the jailbreak, they would release the information immediately.
At the same time, the police were questioning eight other inmates who could tell them how the four managed to get out of jail, Culang added.
For his part, Southern Police District (SPD) director Chief Supt. Jose Arne de los Santos has ordered the conduct of an investigation into the jailbreak, SPD spokesperson Chief Inspector Jenny Tecson said in a text message to the Inquirer.