An unidentified inmate, who was reached by radio station dzMM through mobile phone, said the inmates and the jail guards were having separate drinking sprees inside the provincial jail.
The guards were celebrating the birthday of jail warden Ariel Santiago, while the inmates were on their regular Thursday night "happy hour," when gunshots rang outside at about 11 to 11:30 p.m.
Police reports, however, refuted this, saying the jail guards responded when the inmates, who turned rowdy supposedly to conceal a plan to escape, snatched and beat up jail guard Joselino Cayetano.
The police said Santiago and his men rushed to the cell where Cayetano was taken to rescue him.
The inmates turned riotous and purportedly fired shots at the prison guards, who were forced to shoot back.
The melee left inmate Jessielyn Macawili dead, and fellow inmates Allan Janer, Dennis Garcia, Cyrus Vidal, Jessie Cañete, Rolando Ramos, Dante Fuentes and Reynaldo Bonacruz wounded. — With Ric Sapnu