5 killed in Abu jailbreak try

An escape attempt at a maximum-security jail holding suspected Muslim extremists in Bicutan, Taguig City left at least five people dead yesterday and sparked a standoff with inmates who snatched weapons from guards.

Until 8 last night, government negotiators were waiting for the Abu Sayyaf rebels to surrender in exchange for not getting punished for the escape try, security guarantees, the right to a speedy trial, access to the media to air their stand and the right to choose their own lawyers.

As the standoff at the Camp Bagong Diwa jail facility dragged on into the night, officials said they were ready to use force. "We leave that option open. That option is available to us," Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes said in a radio interview.

"We have our own negotiations with them, but our patience also has limits," Reyes pointed out.

Asked about chances of success in using force to end the standoff, Reyes told dzMM last night, "We’ll do our best, but we cannot guarantee anything. That’s why we want to separate the radicals from the non-radicals, because not all of them are involved."

Meanwhile, anti-terror officials warned the failed escape try could be an attempt to divert attention from a plan by Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militants to launch attacks during Holy Week, either in the Philippines or in key Asian cities.

One official noted that prior to last year’s SuperFerry 14 bombing and the hostage-taking in the Malaysian island of Sipadan in 2000, the Abu Sayyaf stepped up their bombing and kidnapping activities in Central Mindanao, Basilan and Zamboanga.

"These detained Abu Sayyaf bandits, knowing fully well that they have a fair chance of success, could have launched a failed jailbreak as a go signal to their cohorts outside to carry out whatever terrorist (activities) they may have planned," an official said.

Officials hoped to gain the prisoners’ surrender before nightfall at the Camp Bagong Diwa prison, which had been surrounded all day by hundreds of snipers and police Special Forces units.

"There was some delay because they feared for their safety," National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Avelino Razon Jr. said. "But they changed their minds and they’ve agreed to come out."

About 10 armed Abu Sayyaf rebels remained holed up on the second floor of the Security Intensive Care Unit building of the Metro Manila District Jail at Camp Bagong Diwa. Police had earlier given the radicals a 2 p.m. deadline to surrender.

Observers said negotiations were also delayed by politicians who rushed to the maximum-security prison to try to talk to the inmates. A source said Taguig Rep. Allan Peter Cayetano and Mayor Ricardo Papa were seen debating on how to end the standoff.

The prisoners who negotiated the terms called for better jail conditions and a faster resolution of the criminal cases against them.

After Reyes, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Edgar Aglipay and Razon came out of the negotiations at around 7 p.m., they closeted themselves inside the NCRPO headquarters at the camp and had dinner.

"Niloloko lang tayo ng mga iyan (They are just taking us for a ride)," Aglipay fumed after the prisoners demanded that they be served dinner before agreeing to appear in a press conference.

Razon said that in return, the prisoners promised to surrender the firearms they seized from the slain guards and lie down on the floor.

The agreement goes into effect once it is signed by Reyes, said Anak Mindanao party-list Rep. Mujiv Hataman, a member of the government negotiating team.

Razon said he warned BJMP officials last December about the planned jailbreak.

"There were certainly lapses in security measures by our jail guards," he said. "We already told them about the intelligence report that we received and still no concrete measures were taken."

Razon said it was possible that visitors of detained Abu Sayyaf members were able to smuggle firearms into the facility.

Jail officers said they received warnings from both the police and military about the Abu Sayyaf members’ escape plot.

One report said the incident began at 7 a.m. when a suspected Abu Sayyaf member, about to be escorted to a court hearing, stabbed a guard with a metal spike before he could be handcuffed. He then took a rifle and shot two other prison officers dead, police officials said.

According to another report, the inmates overpowered their guards and grabbed three guns as the guards conducted a daily headcount of the 435 prisoners including 129 Abu Sayyaf members on trial for kidnapping and murder, said Superintendent Agerino Cruz, the Manila police spokesman.

Cruz told reporters that three jail guards and two still unidentified prisoners had been killed. Senior Jail Officer 4 Edgardo Dagay, SJO1 Rogelio dela Cruz and JO1 Amadeo Salapate were killed during the scuffle.

Dagay and Dela Cruz were rushed to the nearby Dr. Sabili Hospital while Salapate was taken to Makati Medical Center. All three were declared dead on arrival.

When the Abu Sayyaf members tried to rush toward the gate, they were cornered by two more jail guards who responded to sounds of gunfire. The detainees shot JO1s Sheroky Bilibli and Manuel Lobrio, but returned to the building since they were running out of bullets, police said. Lobrio is in critical condition.

The ensuing shootout died down mid-morning as negotiators using loudspeakers tried to persuade the 10 armed Abu Sayyaf prisoners holed up on the second floor to turn themselves in, officials said.

Negotiations were ongoing at 11:15 a.m. as police snipers took up positions around the building while the shooting subsided.

The prison was surrounded by police Special Forces units, which were prepared to storm the building if talks failed.

A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf suspects, detainee Hazdi Daie, threatened in a telephone interview that, if police stormed the building, "then you will hear bombings all over Manila."

Razon said the uprising appeared to have been instigated by "a core group of 10."

"We have established lines of communication with the inmates," he said. "We are trying to isolate the detainees who are not part of this incident."

‘Hardened criminals, terrorists’

Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Senior Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil told reporters those involved in the escape attempt are believed led by Limbong and Tahir Abdul Gafar.

Both are on trial for the kidnapping of a group of tourists, including three Americans, in the western Philippines in 2001. Limbong was also allegedly involved in the SuperFerry 14 bombing a year ago that killed more than 100 people in the Philippines’ worst terror attack.

Other Abu Sayyaf militants who took part in the escape try are Abdulgni Husin Sadat, Banjeng Abdurasid, alias Abu Nanifa; Roderick Jacinto, Marvin Vincent Rucca, alias Jamil; Sangcula Radzmar, alias Radz; and Edcel Tomas Piga. They all face charges of kidnap for ransom and serious illegal detention before the Pasig City and Makati City courts.

Since then the Abu Sayyaf group, set up in the 1990s allegedly with funding from al-Qaeda, has made it on to the United States’ "foreign terrorist organization" blacklist.

The gunmen are "hardened criminals, terrorists," incoming PNP chief Deputy Director General Arturo Lomibao told reporters outside the prison gates.

"We are not going to think twice if necessary to launch the final option," he said, referring to a prison assault.

On the upper floors of the prison, some of the inmates, many of them naked from the waist up, peered out from behind bars.

At midday yesterday, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Efren Abu called Lomibao to offer the services of the AFP’s urban warfare specialists to help resolve the standoff.

Abu and Lomibao are both members of Philippine Military Academy Class ’72.

AFP information office chief Lt. Col. Buenaventura Pascual said Abu ordered National Capital Region Command chief Lt. Gen. Alan Cabalquinto to place on standby four sniper teams and four assault teams from the Light Reaction Company (LRC), an elite unite that specializes in urban warfare. The eight teams, headed by Col. Jose Vizcarra, were stationed at Fort Bonifacio in Taguig.

Pascual said the AFP believes the LRC, trained and equipped by United States armed forces, can handle the situation at Camp Bagong Diwa.

Aside from their expertise with explosives, the members of this unit are highly trained in close-quarters battle and marksmanship. The LRC was created specifically to handle terrorism activities in urban centers.

Ghost hostages?

Other inmates at the prison called up a local radio station in an attempt to open negotiations with authorities. They claimed the gunmen were holding about 100 inmates hostage, including Chinese prisoners detained on drug charges.

But police dismissed the hostage report, saying the armed prisoners had been isolated in one section of the compound and the other prisoners were secured.

"They are confined in one building. They cannot go out," Cruz said, adding that only inmates remained inside the building. "We cannot say for sure if all of them joined the breakout attempt."

An armored personnel carrier moved in front of the steel-fenced detention center while another was positioned outside the gate. In a building across from the detention center, about two dozen police took cover.

Cruz said the attackers demanded to talk to Hataman and movie action star Robin Padilla, a Muslim convert who currently is out of the country.

By late morning, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Parouk Hussin and Congressman Hataman entered the compound to help prison authorities negotiate with the gunmen.

The prison also holds some of the suspects in the worst terrorist attacks in the Philippines, Bataoil said.

Among them are senior Abu Sayyaf leaders Ghalib Andang, alias Commander Robot, who was arrested in 2003, and Najdmi Sabdula, who was detained in 2001. Both are defendants in the Sipadan kidnappings in 2000.

Police said there were around 130 suspected Islamic militants in the prison, most awaiting trial on kidnapping and murder charges.

"Not all of them are part of this plan," Razon said. "A large proportion of them would like to surrender."

Hussin, after talking to a spokesman for the detainees, told reporters the militants "want a speedy trial because some of them have been detained since 2001."

The shooting was the latest in a series of jailbreak attempts involving detained Muslim militants in the Philippines.

In April 2004 eight escapees were killed after at least 53 prisoners including about 20 Abu Sayyaf suspects broke out of a jail on the Abu Sayyaf stronghold of Basilan island.

The Abu Sayyaf is notorious for deadly bombings and ransom kidnappings in which some hostages have been beheaded. A number of Abu Sayyaf suspects have managed to escape from jails.

Two years ago, a top terror suspect, Indonesian Fathur Rohman al- Ghozi, escaped from Manila police headquarters while serving a 12-year term for possession of explosives. He was killed in a shootout with police a few months later.

In December, a Filipino suspect who was being interrogated about a bomb found on a bus was fatally shot at Camp Crame after allegedly killing a guard.

Philippine jails are often dilapidated, with inadequate and sometimes corrupt staff.

Reyes has ordered a thorough investigation of the failed jailbreak and directed BJMP director Arturo Alit to relieve the jail warden, Superintendent Romeo Elisan, and other personnel on duty — Jail Chief Inspector Jaime Aquino, JO3 Allan Sta. Cruz, and JO1s Recarte Laxaman and Homer Ortega.

Reyes also told Undersecretary Marius Corpus to determine the extent of responsibility of BJMP-National Capital Region director Armando Llamasares and Alit for the jail guards’ apparent non-compliance with prison rules and regulations. — With reports from Jaime Laude, Non Alquitran, AFP