Reduced jail time offered to Tacloban inmates still at large

TACLOBAN CITY—At least 40 inmates of the city jail, who escaped at the height of Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” are being lured to surrender with offers of reduced prison terms.

“We are asking them to surrender for their own good,” said Insp. Rill Sonon, city jail warden. This means if an inmate is serving a sentence of 10 years, two years would be reduced from his sentence.

Sonon said inmates who surface and surrender would have a one-fifth reduction in their prison terms.

Inmates who would not surrender and are caught would have  their prison terms doubled, the warden said.

Sonon said the escapees better surrender or face being hunted down by policemen. Two teams had been formed to track down the escaped inmates.

At the height of Yolanda, at least 160 inmates escaped as rampaging waters and strong winds battered their cells.

“Debris and even cars hit our buildings, so the jails were destroyed, which resulted in the escape of these inmates,” Sonon said.

The jail is on Paterno Extension, which is about 300 meters from the Cancabato Bay, which flooded the jail with 3-meter waves generated by the storm.

Sonon said several inmates returned to jail three days after Yolanda struck on Nov. 8.

“They told us that they just checked the condition of their respective families and even helped rebuild their houses. But after that, they surrendered to us,” the warden said.

He, however, said many of the 120 escaped inmates who have been captured had been arrested in their houses or their relatives’ houses. They did not resist arrest, Sonon said.

He said that of the 40 inmates still at large, several had been sentenced for crimes like murder, illegal drug possession and homicide.

Sonon said that based on reports reaching police here, many of the inmates are now out of the region.