PDEA jail guards, duty officer sacked over suspects’ escape

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency has relieved the prison guard and officer on duty at the PDEA detention facility in this city following the escape of seven drug suspects on Monday.

PDEA-Zamboanga City officer Marvin Santos and all prison guards were also relieved from their posts to ensure an impartial investigation into the jailbreak, regional director Maharani Gadaoni-Tosoc announced yesterday.

Tosoc said the relieved jail guards were replaced by members of the PDEA regional office.

PDEA-Zamboanga peninsula chief operations division agent Aldus Restor was named acting city officer.

Tosoc said initial investigation showed the inmates managed to escape by creating a hole in the ceiling of the detention facility.

The escapees, identified as Kerwin Abdila, Amil Khan Abubasar, Junjimar Aiyob, Albadir Ajijul, Muhajiran Jumlah, Wilson Sahiban and Jimmy Sahibol, are facing charges of large-scale drug trafficking.

Tosoc said members of a tracker team composed of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Regional Mobile Force Battalion 9, Zamboanga police Special Weapons and Tactics team, Bureau of Corrections, Philippine Coast Guard and PDEA are pursuing the fugitives