14-year fugitive nabbed in Camarines Sur

NAGA CITY, Camarines Sur—An inmate who escaped from the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City in 2000 was captured in Lagonoy, Camarines Sur, early Tuesday.

Noel Savilla, 58, was captured alone in his house in the coastal village of Mapid in Lagonoy at 12:45 a.m., said Senior Supt. Rolito Orosco, Lagonoy police chief.

A team of policemen from Lagonoy and the town of San Jose surprised Savilla while he was asleep in his house near the Mapid seashore where he earned a living as a fisherman.

INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

Orosco said Savilla did not expect the arrest because he thought the authorities would have a hard time finding Mapid because of its remoteness.

He said Savilla escaped from the New Bilibid Prison on June 25, 2000, while serving a sentence for murder which he committed sometime during the late 1990s, also in Lagonoy.

Orosco said Savilla was also wanted by the police for two cases of frustrated homicide committed in 2004 in Lagonoy and the adjacent town of San Jose as he was hiding from authorities.

The arresting team had a “request for apprehension” signed by then Bureau of Corrections Director Pedro Sistoza (1998-2001) that served as basis for Savilla’s arrest.

The police also served arrest warrants issued by Judge Ricky Begino of the Municipal Trial Court in Lagonoy and Judge Alfredo Cabral of the Regional Trial Court Branch 30 in San Jose.

Orosco said Savilla was under the custody of the Lagonoy police.