NBP inmate recants payoff claim

ILAGAN CITY, Philippines  – Recaptured murder convict Rommel Laciste has recanted his earlier claim of a P2-million payoff for an “orchestrated escape” involving prominent New Bilibid Prison (NBP) inmate, road rage killer Rolito Go.

This time around, Laciste claimed that a kin of a politician from Isabela helped him escape from the NBP for a job to “liquidate” another politician, according to Isabela police director Senior Superintendent Franklin Mabanag.

“Laciste’s declaration of a P2-million payoff and the escape with (Rolito) Go and three other Chinese-Filipinos are very shaky, to say the least. It now appears from interrogation that he had been making up stories,” Mabanag said.

The escapee told the police official that he supposedly overheard that Go and the other prisoners were set loose by NBP guards for P2 million.

Laciste, who was recaptured by local police in Barangay Surcoc, Naguilian town in Ilagan City, escaped from the national penitentiary’s maximum security compound on Aug. 15, hours after Go resurfaced from an alleged kidnapping that supposedly occurred right inside the NBP.

“At this time, what remains consistent in Laciste’s testimony is that he was made to ride a van which was not checked by NBP guards and then he alighted in Baclaran. All the other details still have to be confirmed,” Mabanag stressed.

He added that Laciste could have made up the story to cover up his escape.

Two days before his caper, Laciste said that a known politician in the province visited him and gave him an initial P300 for a “project” outside jail.

Mabanag, however, said that Laciste refused to identify his visitor at the NBP as well as the target for assassination.

Police are still investigating if the owner of the warehouse in Naguilian town where Laciste was captured Sunday had anything to do with his escape.

Meanwhile, Laciste’s relatives expressed fear for his life after alleged irregularities at the NBP were exposed.

“Please protect my son,” Mabanag said, quoting Laciste’s 60-year-old mother.

Laciste was convicted for the murder of Isabela assistant provincial probation officer Concepcion Lumanglas in 2006. He bolted the Isabela provincial jail but was recaptured and eventually transferred to the NBP following his conviction in 2008.

Improve Phl penal system

Meanwhile, a lawmaker urged Congress to find other options to improve the country’s penal system, including allowing the private sector to build and operate prisons under the supervision of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).

LPG Marketers’ Association party-list Rep. Arnel Ty said the alleged kidnapping of Go and the disappearance of Laciste from the NBP’s maximum security compound should prompt Congress to look into the porous conditions of the country’s penal system.

“Our severely overcrowded prisons are full of holes, and have become extremely prone to potential rioting, hostage-taking and other highly volatile situations,” Ty, a member of the House committee on public order and safety, said.

“We have to find ways to decongest and modernize our prisons, and improve the living conditions of inmates,” he added. –  With Raymund Catindig, Paolo Romero