Drug suspect sets off bomb at rehab center in Cebu

Notorious drug suspect Joel "Tongol" Nodalo has whipped up a fresh storm of mischief at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center in Cebu when he exploded an improvised bomb that forced the brief cancellation of all visiting privileges yesterday.

The bomb was actually crude, made up of powder scraped off match heads and tamped into a plastic bottle. Another inmate, Rommel Equilio, reportedly set off the bomb by hitting it with a hammer.

Nodalo explained that he did not personally detonate the bomb but asked Equilio to test the bomb to see if it would go off. It did, sending the guards running and Warden Mamerto Baroro fuming and cancelling visiting rights.

But the move only produced more trouble as visiting relatives and friends of inmates were held up outside. Baroro was forced to lift the suspension of visiting rights.

Still more trouble was destined for Baroro’s hands when playful rough-housing by some inmates degenerated into a real fight.

Baroro managed to break up the fight before it could erupt into a full-blown riot and promptly ordered surprise inspections.

A number of knives and icepicks were found, exposing the continued failure of officials to wipe the jail clean of weapons.

Nodalo presented himself before Baroro explaining he ignored the summons to appear at the warden’s office for fear of getting beaten or worse, getting sent back into isolation.

Nodalo, who forced his way out of jail three months ago by taking a jailguard hostage but surrendered a day after, has since May 16 destroyed at least six padlocks in his cell during fits of rage.

Easily bored by the company he keeps at Infirmary 2 where he has been kept since doing time in isolation following his escape, Nodalo has managed to occasionally win approval to get out of his cell and mingle with inmates in other cells.

But at times when no guard is in sight to seek permission from, Nodalo would kick up a tantrum and destroy the padlocks, allowing him to just walk out by himself and go visiting associates in other cells.

Asked for his reaction regarding the incident, Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he would rather leave the matter to jail officials. "I don’t get along well with the BBRC. I cannot comment," he said.

Angered and bitterly disappointed in the seemingly unending controversial that hound the city jail, Osmeña has withdrawn the allowances the city used to give to the BBRC. — Freeman News Service