Inmates used for house chores, say probers

PALAYAN CITY—An official of the Nueva Ecija government recommended the relief of officials overseeing the provincial jail for bringing home inmates to do carpentry and house chores, and asking them to do errands, which became an opportunity for one of them to escape.

In a report to acting Gov. Joseph Ortiz, Nueva Ecija administrator Alejandro Abesamis recommended the relief of warden Jo Mario Garcia and his deputy, Dennis Jose. Ortiz ordered an investigation on the June 14 escape of Michael Moga, who is facing car theft charges.

Abesamis, in his report, said Moga, before his escape, was regularly being taken out of his cell by jail guard Jefferson Listerio every time the latter was on duty.

“He (Moga) would do errands for Listerio, like cleaning his motorcycle or cooking his food and, worse, even doing the tasks of a jail guard whenever [Listerio] attended to his personal necessities,” Abesamis said, citing findings of a team that his office sent to the jail to investigate.

“The Moga escape is a clear testament on how bad the jail is being managed,” Abesamis said in his report.

The jail is located along Nueva Ecija-Cagayan Valley Road in Barangay (village) Caalibangbangan in Cabanatuan City. At least five prisoners had escaped from the facility since 2011, reports reaching the provincial government showed.

Abesamis said that on the night of his escape, Moga was reportedly asked to man the gate of the jail as jail guards slept.

“They realized that Moga had escaped only when they woke up the next morning and found the gate wide open,” Abesamis said, saying the inmate took the motorcycle of jail guard Edilberto Juan and Listerio’s service firearm. Juan and Listerio were among the three guards on duty that night.

Abesamis said Moga escaped on the same day that he sent a team from the provincial accounting office to conduct an unannounced head count of prisoners, which was prompted by reports that two inmates had escaped from the jail in early June.

He said he ordered the head count on the authority of Gov. Aurelio Umali.

Before the head count, Jose reportedly tried to convince the team, led by Joel John de Leon, to allow jail officials to provide them the jail’s record of the prisoners’ head count and skip the actual head count.

Abesamis said the team proceeded with the head count and discovered that two inmates facing unbailable offenses were missing. They were Artemio Salin, who is being tried for rape, and Jayson de la Cruz, who was charged with selling illegal drugs.

Informed of the findings, Jose reportedly told De Leon’s team that Salin escaped on June 2 or 3 while De la Cruz was supposedly transferred to the custody of his parents without a court order.

Jose reportedly told De Leon that Garcia had reported to Abesamis the escape of Salin through a text message.

“But both [Garcia and Jose] were silent when I categorically denied,  before them, receiving any text message reporting the alleged Salin escape,” Abesamis said, referring to a follow-up investigation conducted by a disciplinary board that he chairs.

The investigation also revealed that some inmates, including Marlon Galope, who is facing charges for illegal drugs sale, were being brought home by a guard, Maribel de Guzman, to her house in Sta. Rosa town, allegedly “to do tasks like carpentry and the hairdressing of her children.”

Abesamis also found out that on March 31, De Guzman and at least 10 inmates, five of them women, organized an excursion in Gabaldon town to celebrate her birthday. The group, he said, used a service vehicle of the provincial jail in that trip.  Armand Galang, Inquirer Central Luzon