CPDRC escapee falls in Negros Occidental

CEBU, Philippines - After almost two months in hiding, an escapee from the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center was arrested Friday evening by the joint police operatives and the Philippine Army in the mountain barangay in Calatrava, Negros Occidental.

Arnel Mait, 36, was tracked by the intelligence operatives of Cebu Provincial Police Office in Sitio Dagundong, Barangay Tigbon where he hails from.

The operation that led to the successful arrest of Mait was jointly conducted by the Provincial Intelligence Branch and Provincial Public Safety Company (PPSC) of CPPO and 62nd Infantry Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division of Philippine Army.

 Superintendent Mario Bauiran Jr.,  PPSC commander, said Mait was alone in his house when the operatives arrived. He also did not resist arrest.

 "He thought he cannot be tracked down," Bauiran said.

Mait, who is facing drug charges, escaped from CPDRC on July 25 by pretending to be a visitor.

He claimed that his fellow inmates helped him escape by giving him a visitor's pass, which he used to escape by pretending as visitor upon passing through the guards at the main gate. Mait said the visitor's I.D. has long been in the possession of his fellow inmates.

According to him, he confided to his fellow inmates his problem of his wife's having an affair with another man.

"May time nga sige ko'g ingun nga ang akong asawa nagbinuang gyud. Mao to gihatag ang ID mao nakagawas ko," Mait said.

His wife had been sending him letters that she would already elope with another man.

"Sige'g pada og suwat nga mokuyog siya sa laki," Mait said.

According to Mait, a jail guard was also courting his wife.

 Mait, however, refused to divulge the names of the inmates who allegedly helped him escape.

Mait's escape prompted Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III to suspend all privileges of the inmates, including visitation, starting on August 9. The suspension of their privileges prompted the inmates to raise P30,000 reward for Mait's capture.

The privileges, however, were already restored on September 1 but not until jail consultant Marco Toral has resigned and jail warden Romeo Manansala was relieved. (FREEMAN)