Police launch hunt for 9 escaped prisoners in Quezon City

Nine inmates facing charges ranging from possession of illegal drugs to malicious mischief escaped from their cell inside a police station in Fairview, Quezon City, at around 2 a.m. Wednesday.

An initial investigation showed that the nine got out by sawing off a steel bar in one of the windows in their cell using a hacksaw that was believed to have been smuggled inside the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Station 5 by a visitor.

To mask the noise being made by the saw, the prisoners turned on a faucet, the police said.

QCPD director Chief Superintendent George Regis identified the escapees as Pedro Perez, 40; Romulus Bagnate, 30; Richard Santos, 21; Severilio Soriano, 22; Russel Catintay, 22; Richard David, 37; Ernesto Ramasanta, 22; Joel Gurobot, 24; and Alex Francisco, 18.

According to him, five of the prisoners were being held on charges of illegal drug possession while the others were arrested for petty crimes such as theft, malicious mischief and violation of city ordinances.

A police report said that Perez had a visitor the night before who could have slipped him the hacksaw.

It added that the jailbreak was reported by a tricycle driver who was plying his route at around 2 a.m. Wednesday.

The driver said he was looking for passengers when he noticed several men making their way down from a small window at the police station.

A report submitted by QCPD Station 5 chief Supt. Edgardo Pamittan said that after the tricycle driver reported what he saw to desk officer Senior Police Officer 2 Reymundo Paligutan, the latter ran after the escapees but failed to catch them.

Pamittan added that there were five other detainees in the cell although they did not join the others in escaping.

Regis said he had ordered tracker teams to look for the escaped inmates. As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, a special task force headed by Senior Supt. Ranier Idio had caught three of the prisoners—Perez, Bagnate and Catintay.

Pamittan, on the other hand, said he had asked the two jail guards who were on duty at the time of the escape to submit an explanation. The two were identified as Police Officer 3 Manuel Ereno and PO2 Romeo Guerrero.