Hunt for Bilibid escapee in Isabela stepped up

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Combined elements of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) and the police have stepped up their manhunt in Isabela for an escapee of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), authorities said yesterday.

This, as reports said Rommel Laciste, who was meted life imprisonment in 2008 for the murder of a female probation officer in Isabela six years ago, was spotted at his hometown of San Mariano.

Laciste’s disappearance at the national penitentiary was discovered hours after fellow inmate, convicted road rage killer Rolito Go, surfaced after going missing overnight as he was supposedly kidnapped. 

Senior Superintendent Franklin Mabanag, Isabela police director, said the manhunt was launched after an uncle of Laciste disclosed that their relatives saw him on the night of Aug. 15 in Barangay Palutan in San Mariano. 

Palutan adjoins the barangay of Santa Filomena, where Laciste hails from and where most of his relatives reside. Both barangays lie at the foothills of Sierra Madre.  

Mabanag said the San Mariano police only learned about Laciste’s presence in the town last Friday, a day after he had already left.

According to unconfirmed reports, Laciste is somewhere in Cauayan City, also in Isabela, where some of his relatives also reside. 

“Besides the San Mariano area, we are also concentrating our manhunt in Cauayan City, but so far it’s all still negative. We are also in close contacts with his relatives for his possible whereabouts,” he said.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday said Laciste could have jumped into a delivery truck to escape, based on footage from the penitentiary’s closed-circuit TV cameras.

“Initial probe indicates that Laciste’s possible escape route was the rice hull delivery truck that was haphazardly inspected at Gate 4 when it exited at about 2:30 p.m. last Aug. 15,” she said. 

De Lima expressed dismay over the escape, which took place on the same day Go was reportedly kidnapped inside the NBP premises. 

She said she has issued show cause memos to about 10 custodial officers and personnel requiring them to explain within two days why they should not be administratively sanctioned over the incident. 

De Lima also ordered the deployment of a five-man team to hunt down Laciste in Isabela “based on reported sightings of subject in several barangays there.” 

The BuCor, which supervises the NBP, was placed under De Lima’s temporary supervision after director Gaudencio Pangilinan went on leave following Go’s disappearance.

Laciste was serving a life sentence for the kidnap-slay in September 2006 of Concepcion Lumanglas, then the assistant provincial parole and probation officer.

He was arrested in Barangay Namamparan, Diadi town this province for beating to death a tricycle driver whom he had hired to bring him to Santiago City in Isabela.

He escaped from the Isabela provincial jail but he was re-arrested and eventually transferred to the NBP.

He had faced a string of criminal cases in local courts before the Lumanglas killing. – With Edu Punay