Bloody jailbreak by Abu Sayyaf men foiled

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Jail authorities here said on Tuesday that they had uncovered a sinister plot by the Abu Sayyaf to spring out its jailed members.

Chief Insp. Julius Arro, jail warden of the Zamboanga City Reformatory Center, said the plot was uncovered when jail guards became suspicious of an unidentified woman who was bringing in earthen stove, not once, but thrice.

Arro said jail guards had already taken notice of the woman, who wore a Muslim garb, for being a regular visitor.

But over the weekend, he said the woman brought in an earthen stove or pugon.

On the second instance, the jail guards alerted Arro.

“Our security personnel noticed something unusual when the woman brought in pugon the second time. Secretly we had her tailed without showing her that we had become suspicious of her,” Arro said.

When she delivered the third stove, Arro said they confiscated it. The two stoves earlier delivered had also been seized.

“We broke the stoves down and discovered three .45 caliber pistols and a cellular phone,” he said.

The cellular phone also had messages that indicated the escape plan was to be executed on Monday night.

“The plan was to stage an attack Monday night, they will commence their plot at 6 p.m. and in the message, they were assured of support from the outside,” Arro added.

A few hours before the execution of the plot, Arro said he had the security perimeters of the Zamboanga City Reformatory Center along Calixto Street fortified with the help of the local police and the military.

Senior Supt. Angelito Casimiro, the city police director, said policemen were put on alert for suspicious movements.

Arro said the plot had been apparently foiled as Monday had passed without any untoward incident. But he added that they were not letting their guard down yet.

He said an investigation was also being conducted against the three inmates, who received the stoves from the unidentified visitor.

Arro said the attempted jailbreak gave jail authorities more reason to expedite the transfer of high risk inmates to Manila.

At least 57 high-risk inmates are currently being held at the ZCRC, which holds about 1,500 prisoners, according to Arro.

“If those stoves were not discovered and inspected, I just cannot imagine the jail facility now, it could have been a bloody jailbreak, many will die since we were informed that other inmates were planning to support the three,” Arro added.