Cotabato jailbreak: 8 killed, 97 inmates still at large

Policemen patrol outside the walls of the North Cotabato District Jail in Kidapawan city, Cotabato Province, southern Philippines, after a massive jailbreak early Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017. In one of the country’s largest jailbreaks in recent years, nearly 160 inmates escaped after suspected Muslim rebels attacked the jail before dawn Wednesday killing at least six people as pursuing government forces traded fire with gunmen, officials said. (AP Photo)

KIDAPAWAN CITY—Police have killed eight of the 158 inmates who escaped from a North Cotabato prison in the biggest jailbreak in local history, officials said on Friday.

Fifty-three others have been recaptured or surrendered, leaving 97 still at large, and Interior Secretary Mike Sueño said the rest would not be harmed if they gave up peacefully to be brought back to the North Cotabato District Jail in Barangay Amas here.

Sueño said pursuing policemen and troops were under instructions to capture the inmates alive and bring them back to the jail.

“There is no shoot-to-kill order for them and it’s also not in our policy.  But if they fight our troops, their life might be endangered,” Sueño said.

Pursuing government troops will only be forced to take drastic action if the fugitives resisted arrest and put up a fight, he told a local radio here.

Some of those who escaped Wednesday were armed with machetes. At least one local resident, Socilo Quino, was injured when he crossed paths with the violent men, but was said to be recuperating at the Cotabato Provincial Hospital,  located in the same village.

Give up, says police

A jail guard was also killed during the daring and well-planned escape as well as a village official who allegedly drew a gun when encountered by police.

Jail warden Supt. Peter Bongngat urged those who fled to voluntarily give up, especially those who might just have been coerced by other prisoners.

“We are aware that not all of them had planned to escape,” he said.

Bongngat said Acting Gov. Shirlyn Macasarte-Villanueva had also directed town mayors in the province to assist those who might surrender to them.

He said the fugitives’ families could also help by convincing them to give up. He said families of inmates who would decide to turn over their loved ones could reach jail officials by calling or messaging the hotline number of the local Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) at  0918-3906069.

The BJMP runs the 450-people capacity prison, which was actually populated by 1,511 inmates at the time of the jailbreak.

The jailbreak took place when about 100 heavily armed men stormed the prison, which is inside the provincial capitol compound in Amas on Wednesday.

Among those who escaped was Esmael Nasser, alias Derbi, a bombing and murder suspect.

Bongngat said those who attacked the jail were believed to include members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, which broke away from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) when the latter signed a peace deal with Manila in 2014.

Both groups have denied involvement in the prison break, the latest in a long line of daring escapes to hit the jail.

In February 2007, alleged MILF men mounted a lightning attack and freed 49 inmates while in March 2009, three inmates, including a man jailed for a deadly mall bombing in the south, escaped. —WITH A REPORT FROM AP