Jailbreak try eyed in Parañaque jail blast

MANILA, Philippines - Investigators believe that inmates killed in an explosion at the Parañaque City Jail Thursday night may have plotted to hold the jail warden hostage in a bid to escape, an official said yesterday.

The explosion, which occurred in the office of jail warden Superintendent Gerald Bantag at around 8:30 p.m., killed 10 inmates and wounded Bantag.

Senior Superintendent Jose Carumba, city police chief, said based on their investigation, the inmates reportedly tried to take Bantag hostage as part of a jailbreak and the warden shot it out with them.

He said at least 10 inmates at the five-story jail requested an audience with Bantag but allegedly pulled out a grenade and a machine pistol as they approached his office and began shooting at the warden.

“The warden shot back and hit the inmate holding the grenade. It exploded in the room,” Carumba said, adding that eight were reported to have died at the scene while two were declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital.

He could not say who was holding the grenade.

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A street sweeper living near the jail told The STAR she heard “a gunshot and a loud explosion, then successive bursts of gunfire.”

She said some jail guards told her one of the 10 inmates was seen trying to open the main gate but was shot by one of the guards.

During the shootout one of the Chinese detainees allegedly pulled out a grenade but was gunned down before he could hurl it. 

The street sweeper also said that the inmates held a noise barrage after news broke out that the inmates were killed in the grenade explosion.

“The inmates were shouting that the (victims) were shot in cold blood,” she said.

Carumba said they are recommending criminal and administrative charges against the jail guards who escorted the prisoners to Bantag’s office for not frisking the inmates when they went out of their cells.

Crime scene investigators processed the scene of the alleged firefight and results are expected anytime, he said.

Duterte mum on incident

President Duterte, meanwhile, refused to comment on the explosion but quipped that since the blast occurred in the jail, it could be categorized as an “inside job.”

The President read out the names of those killed in the explosion during a press briefing in Davao Thursday night: Waren Manampen, Ronald Domdom, Rodel Domdom, Danilo Pineda, Joseph Villasor, Oliver Sarreal, Jeremy Flores, Jonathan Ilas and Chinese detainees Jacky Huang and Yonghan Cai.

All 10 of the inmates were detained on drug charges except for Villasor, who was charged with robbery with homicide, and Ilas, who faced a robbery with illegal possession of firearms case.

On the other hand, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said yesterday there should be an independent probe conducted by a third party such as the Commission on Human Rights on the incident to erase doubts that the investigation is being whitewashed.

“We cannot just simply rely on the in-house investigation being conducted by the police and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology,” said Rodolfo Diamante, executive secretary of the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care. – With Edith Regalado, Evelyn Macairan