Convict changes Rolito Go-escape story

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

ILAGAN CITY—A day after claiming that he had escaped from the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) together with murder convict Rolito Go and three others, recaptured prisoner Rommel Laciste on Monday retracted his statement, now saying that he was alone when he bolted the national penitentiary on August 15.

Senior Supt. Franklin Moises Mabanag, Isabela police director, said that during police questioning, Laciste changed his story and told them that he escaped alone by boarding a truck loaded with rice hull from the prison compound.

“We interrogated him until 2 a.m. on August 27 and he claimed that he concocted the story to pass on the blame to someone else. He said no one financed his escape,” Mabanag said.

When he was rearrested in Naguilian, Isabela, Laciste had told police that he saw Go and three other Chinese-speaking persons inside a delivery van he had boarded to get out of prison.

Mabanag said Chief Supt. Rodrigo de Gracia, Cagayan Valley police director, ordered that Laciste be brought to the regional police’s intelligence office on Sunday afternoon for tactical interrogation after they suspected he was concocting tales about his escape.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Monday said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) was looking into the “rather spectacular” claim  of Laciste that he escaped along with Go and three others.

In a text message, De Lima said the NBI’s investigation of Go’s disappearance and his claim that he was abducted from the NBP on August 14 had “no such information or findings” as that being claimed by Laciste.

“It’s quite off tangent or far out from the results so far. Rather spectacular,” De Lima said of Laciste’s claim.

Only last week, De Lima admitted that based on the evidence there could have been a “semblance of truth” to Go’s claim that he and his nephew were forcibly taken from the NBP by four men. Go claimed they were taken to Batangas by the men who demanded money from him.

“Nonetheless, the NBI is now looking into Laciste’s claim,” De Lima said.

Laciste, a convicted killer himself, had claimed he was on board the truck with Go and other Chinese nationals. He said he got down in Baclaran and walked all the way to Sampaloc where he boarded a bus going to Isabela.

Laciste said he decided to escape because he was threatened by a fellow inmate after he failed to pay the P24,000 he owed him.

Mabanag said Laciste also claimed that a prison guard facilitated his escape and that he was hired to kill two persons.

Mabanag said Laciste had told police that he and another inmate hatched the plan to kill an Isabela trader. With a report from Christine O. Avendaño