Cebu inmates clash with guards

CEBU CITY — Tension erupted at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) here the other day as restive inmates threw broken glass, stones and sticks at jail guards after their visitation privileges were suspended.

Firemen aimed their hoses at detention quarters to stop the two-hour sporadic fracas.

But before the afternoon melee erupted, an inmate later identified as Danilo Sabas was reportedly seen aiming a caliber .38 revolver at jail guard Luceno Capol while doing his rounds at Tower 4. The inmate was reportedly heard to have even challenged Capol to a draw.

Reynaldo Berdin, regional director of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, suspended visitation privileges the other day as reports gained credence that inmates were in possession of firearms and explosives.

How the guns slipped inspection is still the subject of investigation but jail authorities were surprised about the presence of firearms when five inmates bolted last Sunday after holding guards at gunpoint.

Top drug and robbery suspect Joel Nodalo, together with convicted robber Reil Bautista, Felix Al-os, Mitchel Bernabe and Washington Calimbo, fled Sunday night in a van. Al-os and Bernabe are facing robbery charges, while Calimbo is a car theft suspect.

But on Monday, Nodalo, who was shot during the escape, surrendered to police apparently because he needed hospital treatment for his gunshot wound.

Calimbo gave himself up to the Lapu-Lapu City police and was turned over to BBRC authorities the other day.

In a tactical investigation, Calimbo confirmed that there are weapons inside the detention center, including caliber .45 pistols, caliber .38 revolvers, derringers, grenades and cellular phones.

Calimbo would not confirm though how the firearms slipped undetected by jail guards. But Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief Edwin Diocos said the guns used by Joel Nodalo and Reil Bautista were smuggled in two weeks ago.

At about 8 o’clock Tuesday morning, jail warden Primitivo Benitez called the mayores (cell leaders) of the Batang Cebu 45 gang to a meeting on the presence of firearms inside the jail.

Benitez gave inmates until 10 a.m. to surrender the firearms. But after the 10 a.m. deadline expired, no firearm was surrendered and instead what the mayores turned over were improvised weapons made from toothbrush, nails and scraps of steel.

This prompted Benitez to cut visiting privileges temporarily that day.

But that only sparked tension from visiting relatives and the inmates themselves. As tension gripped the morning, a standoff between inmates and jail authorities ensued on the surrender of firearms.

Drug suspect Nanan Jimenez, adviser of Batang Cebu 45, appealed to jail authorities to reconsider and lift the suspension of visiting privileges, but Benitez would not accede.

The volatile tension snapped at 3 p.m. as inmates threw stones, sticks and broken glass at the jail guards.

When firemen trained their waterhoses on them, the inmates fought back, throwing crude molotov bombs. — Freeman News Service