ISABELA CITY, Basilan, Philippines – Suspected Islamic militants knocked down a concrete wall and raided the Basilan provincial jail early yesterday, freeing 31 detainees in a daring attack that left three people dead and two others wounded.
The heavily armed men cut through padlocks with boltcutters after using a sledgehammer to destroy the wall of the provincial jail to free several detained Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) commanders.
Other inmates also dashed to freedom as a brief gunfight ensued between the raiders and the outnumbered jail guards before dawn.
The attackers and prisoners fled in several vehicles toward the Sampinit complex, a former haven of the Abu Sayyaf group.
The two slain raiders were identified as Jul, alias Killer, and Lipao Igasan. The remains of Igasan were recovered by his family and brought to Al-Barka town.
It was the fourth mass jailbreak to hit the ill-equipped detention facility in five years where a number of “high-risk detainees” are being held.
Jail warden Jumaril Sali said the rebels forced their way through the main gate at the back of the compound surrounded with an 18-foot-high concrete fence guarded by four jail personnel.
The detention facility houses 64 prisoners, some of them suspected Abu Sayyaf militants.
Sali blamed MILF rebels for the raid, noting that those freed included MILF leaders Dan Asnawi, alias Dan Laksaw, and Kamsa Limaya, both detained in connection with the July 10, 2007 beheading of 14 marines in Al-Barka town.
“We have been receiving threats because we have a number of high-risk prisoners detained here,” Sali said.
The jail warden said the raiders barged into the main gate and killed Jail Officer III Ron Nasser. He sustained a gunshot wound that almost obliterated his head.
The two wounded jail personnel were identified as JO3 Nazzer Zaali and JO3 Sixto Diaz.
The rest of the rebels climbed a ladder at the back and posed as snipers to check the movement of jail guards while the others easily bore a meter wide hole through the concrete fence where the prisoners slipped through and dashed to freedom.
“Those who attacked numbered more or less 50 armed MILF. But it looks like they have close to a hundred considering those who were outside,” Sali said.
Nasser’s wife, Rosalie, 44, who was residing nearby said they heard gunfire and later learned her husband had been killed in the encounter with the rebels.
Basilan Vice Gov. Al-Rasheed Sakalahul conducted an ocular inspection in the provincial jail and noted that the facilities were ill equipped with firearms and personnel.
The vice governor said that the jail personnel failed to intensify its intelligence surveillance citing the number of armed men who managed to close in and stage the attack.
“We believed that those behind this were regular members of the MILF considering the ones they rescued (including) commander Dan (Asnawi),” Sakalahul said.
Senior Superintendent Rolando Puruganan, deputy chief of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operation (DIPO) Western Mindanao, said police and marines have launched pursuit operation in an effort to recapture the prisoners. – James Mananghaya, Cecille Suerte Felipe, AP