Big-time pusher moved to old jail

CEBU — Is the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology playing a game of "now you see them, now you don’t" shell game using real live inmates?

This surfaced when at least 10 inmates of Cebu City’s Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center, including notorious alleged big-time drug pusher Joel "Tongol" Nodalo, were surreptitiously moved to the old Talisay City jail and then again to an undisclosed location when Talisay City Mayor Eduardo Gullas found out.

Nodalo and the nine other inmates were secretly hied off to the Talisay City jail last week for causing problems at the BBRC, including an alleged foiled plot to escape during the Holy Week but Gullas was incensed on not having been informed of the move.

Gullas wrote a strongly-worded letter to BJMP assistant regional director Reynaldo Berdin demanding the immediate transfer of the inmates from the old Talisay City jail.

"They moved the inmates without even the courtesy of informing me. These are notorious criminals, some of them murderers. I demanded their immediate transfer," Gullas said.

Gullas said Berdin later apologized and moved the inmates to another facility.

Aside from Nodalo, the nine others are Tongol’s elder brother Isidro alias Botex, Albino Labud, Fernando Villanueva, Julio Cabusas Jr. Edgar Gabucan, Mario Garcia, Alejandro Palingkod, Joseph Reyes and Teofilo Reyes Jr. They face a range of charges from murder, drug trafficking, robbery, estafa and theft. Some are believed responsible for the proliferation of illegal drugs at the BBRC.

Tongol tried to escape from the BBRC last March but was shot and wounded in the attempt and surrendered a day after. Four others joined in the escape but only Mitchel Bernabe and Washington Calimbo had been recaptured. The two others, notorious robbers Riel Bautista and Felix Al-os, a suspected member of the Kuratong Baleleng, remain at large.

Botex was transferred with Tongol for being one of the leaders of an ugly protest by 200 inmates against the curtailment of overnight visits following the escape of Tongol. — Freeman News Service