Two inmates bolt Bogo police jail; 1 recaptured

Two new prisoners bolted the Bogo police station stockade Saturday noon while the policemen-on-duty were having their lunch.

But an hour later, one of the escapees was recaptured.

Bogo police chief, Insp. Arturo Pacifico, yesterday said the two detainees took advantage of the lunch break of the policemen by cutting off one of the iron bars of their cell with a hacksaw.

Pacifico identified the two as Roy Agdon, of barangay Don Pedro, who was arrested in a drug buy-bust last November 1, and Mandel Hortizuela, 22, years old of barangay Malingin, who was nabbed for theft last Wednesday.

After the filing of cases against them, they were supposed to be transferred to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology last Friday but was postponed because it was a holiday then, said Pacifico.

The police chief said there were actually four inmates in the cell, including a juvenile offender. The fourth inmate, detained for stabbing, actually helped in sawing off the iron bar but opted not to join the escape and stay instead with the juvenile behind.

Pacifico said the police failed to notice that the inmates started cutting the bar since Friday night because every inspection time, they would cover the sawed portion with mud to avoid detection.

Hortizuela was later arrested in the middle of a field in barangay Malingin, adjacent to barangay Poblacion.

The police failed to get back Agdon but they suspected that he could have reached and hid in a sugarcane plantation near a hospital in Poblacion.

Pacifico is optimistic Agdon will soon be recaptured, adding that some policemen were already dispatched to the two wharves in barangay Maya of Daanbantayan town where the escapee might use in going to Masbate province. - Flor Z. Perolina