4 death convicts, 3 others bolt Samar jail

TACLOBAN CITY — Seven inmates, including four recent death convicts, bolted the Northern Samar provincial jail last Tuesday afternoon, but two of them were recaptured hours later.

The jailbreakers made good their escape after fatally shooting a jail guard, Proseso Paredes, in the head at about 1 p.m. while the nearly 100 inmates of the provincial jail were having lunch.

Superintendent Alberto Mendador, Northern Samar police director, identified the jailbreakers as death convicts Rogelio Galicio and his brother Cecilio, and Rodolfo Catamora, all sentenced for murder, and Joel Catamora, for four counts of rape; and detainees Wilfredo Delaba, Romeo Nicha and Donde de Guia, all facing murder charges.

De Guia was rearrested two hours after the jailbreak in the forested area in Barangay Dan—calan, Bobon town, while Cecilio Galicio fell to pursuing policemen in another hinterland Bobon village.

Probers said Rogelio Galicio gunned down Paredes, after which Nicha sawed off the jail’s steel gate using an improvised hacksaw.