Doubts linger over initial account of fatal jail blast

TIGHTENED SECURITY A battle-ready unit from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology takes over the Parañaque City jail following the deadly blast. PHOTO BY RAFFY LERMA

AMID Church-backed calls for an independent probe of the explosion that killed 10 inmates inside the warden’s office of Parañaque City jail, their families continued to raise doubts over what the police had so far said about how the detainees died.

In a phone interview on Saturday, a female relative of Waren Manampen, one of the fatalities, said his corpse was in a “pitiful” condition and showed signs of “torture” when turned over to their family.

“One foot was gone. How did that happen? And he had two bullet holes in the back. Why in the back?” said the relative, who had just attended Manampen’s burial in Maguindanao province. She asked not to be identified in this report for security reasons.

Manampen was one of the “high-profile” inmates who died in the Aug. 11 incident, which also wounded the jail warden, Supt. Gerald Bantag. Eight of the inmates, including two Chinese nationals, were facing drug-related charges.

First police statements

The day after the blast, the Parañaque police chief, Senior Supt. Jose Carumba, said that based on Bantag’s initial account, the inmates came to his office Thursday night for a dialogue apparently regarding his plan to transfer them to other cells and search the jail for contraband.

The warden, Carumba said, was brushing his teeth at the office bathroom when he heard a commotion and a gunshot at the receiving area, prompting him to reach for his pistol. As the inmates “kept firing” at Bantag, an exchange of gunfire ensued—and that’s when a grenade exploded.

Saying an Uzi submachine gun was later recovered from the inmates, Carumba raised the possibility that they were planning to escape or take Bantag hostage that night.

But according to Manampen’s relative, it was practically impossible for the inmates to smuggle high-power firearms into the jail due to the tight security. “I have been there twice to visit him. The jail guards really frisk you to the point that you’re almost naked. I don’t believe the weapons belonged to the inmates.”

It was also odd to say that the group who met with the Bantag had plans to escape because, hours before the incident, Manampen sent her a text message asking her to bring him some clothes when she visits him again on Sunday.

“Why would he even bother to text (such a request) if he had plans of escaping?” she said.

According to her, a week before Manampen’s death, she received an anonymous text message that her relative had been “”suffering” in the jail (nahihirapan sa loob).” She texted back to ask what the message meant, but the reply offered no further explanation.

Skeptical widow

“It really bothers me. It makes me believe they were killed and tortured. I just know it,” she told the Inquirer. But seeking justice now may be a futile exercise “because we are poor,” she said.

Meanwhile, the widow of Jonathan Ilas, another inmate who died, believes that  their deaths were “planned.”

“There was no riot or whatever it is they are saying,” Cristina said in a TV interview, adding that it was hard for her to accept police statements that the inmates died on the spot.

She also noted that Bantag, who was said to be alone at the office when the inmates came to see him, merely sustained injuries and was rushed to the hospital for treatment.

An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has called for an in-depth investigation, saying the Commission on Human Rights should be involved in an independent probe.

“We cannot just simply rely on the in-house investigation being conducted by the police or the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology. Let the CHR initially look into it,” said Rudy Diamante, executive secretary of the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Prison and Pastoral Care.

Carumba on Saturday gave assurance that there would be no whitewash  in the probe conducted by the local police, saying that all angles—including suspicions that the inmates were summarily executed—were being looked into.

Jail guards’ accounts

“So far though, no one has surfaced to tell us something about that,” he said, adding that only two jail guards have given statements to the police.

He was referring to Senior Jail Officer 2 Ricardo Zulueta, who said it was he who told Bantag that the inmates wanted to talk to him, and JO2 Victor Erick Pascua, who said he and Bantag were in the warden’s office when Zulueta came in to relay the inmates’ request.

Zulueta said he was the one who also picked up the 10 inmates from their cells and brought them to the warden’s office—and admitted that he did not frisk any of them. After bringing them to the office, he said, he stepped outside and went to the gate for a smoke.

Pascua, on the other hand, recalled last seeing the inmates alive when they were gathered in front of the warden’s table. He had just taken about 10 steps from the office and was walking on the hallway when he heard a series of loud thuds.

This was followed by several gunshots and then a loud explosion. “I heard the warden shout, ‘Erick, help!’ So I approached slowly but someone took a shot at me.” Pascua said this prompted him to fire back.

He said he did not see who fired at him in the thick smoke but could only make out that the shooter was wearing yellow. He said the shootings ceased after several minutes.

Like Zulueta, Pascua admitted he did not frisk the inmates when they entered the office.

But he said there had been many instances in the past when the warden let inmates into his office with no other jail officer around.