EDITORIAL – For the nth time, a jailbreak

Will someone drum it into the heads of the country’s jailers that detainees are supposed to remain behind bars? Here we are still looking for escaped bombing suspect Abdul Basit Usman, and we get a report of yet another jailbreak. This time, four suspected commanders of the notorious Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang reportedly sawed off the iron grills of their cell with a steel wire and escaped at dawn Saturday from the city jail in Kidapawan.

The four were identified as Mangara Angil and Tonton Saligap who were facing carjacking charges, and Saydona Salandan and Tonih Lidasan who were indicted for gunrunning. They are said to have close ties with Pentagon chieftain Tahir Alonto, who took over the gang following a falling out with its founder Fai-sal Marohombsar. As the nation knows, Marohombsar himself escaped from a maximum security cell at Camp Crame, headquarters of the Philippine National Police, earlier this year, but was gunned down months later in a purported encounter with police in Cavite.

You can’t blame the Kidapawan guards for laxity in their job. After all, no one has been punished for the escape of Usman, who was arrested for the April 21 bombing of the Fitmart shopping center in General Santos City. PNP officials pointed out that Usman was never placed under arrest, which made the public wonder what he was doing at the Sarangani police station for three months. Police blamed a judge for failure to issue an arrest warrant for Usman, while the judge said he had gone on leave and remembered Usman’s case only after news of the suspected bomber’s escape was reported.

Since it’s rare to hear of anyone being punished for a jailbreak, there’s little incentive for jail guards to concentrate on their jobs. Some jail guards may even think there’s a reward for allowing detainees, especially the most notorious ones, to walk to freedom. Previous proposals for stiff penalties on jail guards seemed unfair. But after the escape of Marohombsar and two of his fellow detainees, followed by suspected drug trafficker Henry Tan, then two Abu Sayyaf suspects and now four Pentagon gang members, you want to make the jail guards take the place of the escaped suspects. The government must crack the whip on jail guards who sleep on the job. Otherwise going after terrorists and ordinary criminals would simply be a waste of time, effort and taxpayers’ money.