Cagayan de Oro inmates’ transfer rushed after tunnel find

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—At least 47 inmates of the city jail in Barangay Lumbia here, including two Swedes convicted of human trafficking and several Chinese drug convicts, had been moved to another prison following the discovery of a tunnel that led straight to the jail, authorities said.

Supt. Clint Russel Tangeres, city jail warden, said the inmates had been transferred to the Davao Prison and Penal Farm in Davao del Norte.

Tangeres said the transfer of the inmates was a plan that had been pending but which took an urgent turn following the the discovery of the 86-meter long tunnel that led to the jail’s reception and diagnostic center where the Swedes, Chinese and other high-security risk inmates were being held.

“At least, the number of high-profile prisoners we have here has been minimized while the investigation of the tunnel continues,” Tangeres said of the transfer last Friday.

He said one of the theories that authorities were looking at was that members of the Hong Kong-based drug syndicate Triad could have financed the tunnel’s construction.

Ordinary inmates weren’t capable of funding the tunnel construction, said Tangeres. Expensive pieces of equipment, like aerators and blowers, were used to build the tunnel, he said. Trucks were used to haul out soil and rocks dug out from the tunnel site.

The tunnel was also well-lighted, with bulbs placed 10 m apart.

A resident told Inquirer about hearing noise coming from the tunnel site but this was too faint to attract attention.

“This was the first of its kind. Every tunnel for prisoners’ escape was dug from the inside. This was different,” a jail official said.

Tangeres said authorities were trying to seal the tunnel and dump soil into it.

Authorities, he said, are still hunting the man who leased the lot on which the tunnel was built, but found that the suspect had used a fictitious name. Bobby Lagsa, Inquirer Mindanao