Opik Lasal: No sweat escaping from Camp Crame

It was no sweat.

Camp Crame may be the headquarters of the Philippine National Police but escaping from there was a breeze, according to Omar Opik Lasal, who along with another Abu Sayyaf member, Abdulmukim Edris, slipped out with Indonesian Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi before dawn last July 14.

Getting out of their cell was easy because the lock was defective, Lasal told an interview with ABS-CBN television. He insisted several times that they did not get help from the police or anyone else.

They simply walked past jail guards and made their way to the fire exit, where Al-Ghozi shaved off his beard to avoid being recognized, Lasal said. They then walked across the Camp Crame grounds towards the main gate on Santolan street and passed a troop of police trainees who did not take notice of them. Four sentries at the Santolan gate also ignored them, Lasal said. They then got into a taxi.

They called the wife of senior Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafy Janjalani using a cellular phone they stole on their way out of the detention center to ask for a place to hide. They reached Mindanao three days later by bus and boat, he said.

On the bus, several passengers passed the time reading newspapers with headlines blaring their great escape, Lasal said.