Maguindanao's 'Lastikman' tries to bolt jail anew

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Guards on Friday foiled the latest attempt by Maguindanao provincial jail's most notorious inmate, "Lastikman," to bolt from his cell.

The incident occurred just months after the ethnic Maguindanaon, whose real name is Datukan Samad, was recaptured following a daring escape from the same facility in 2012.

Lastikman is being prosecuted for multiple murders, cattle theft, highway robberies and drug trafficking.

Armando Baguaman, warden of the Maguindanao provincial jail, located at P.C. Hill in Cotabato City, said alert guards caught Lastikman and his cellmates trying to slowly cut the iron grills of their cell's window using a hacksaw smuggled in by a visiting relative.

Baguaman said they immediately transferred Lastikman, who hails from Pikit town in North Cotabato, into another cell, near a security post.

Baguaman said guards who immediately scoured the surroundings of the jail after they prevented the escape of Lastikman found an abandoned motorcycle parked few meters away from the fenced compound of the facility.

"We are now validating, with the help of the police, the possibility that the motorcycle was to be used as his getaway vehicle," Baguaman said.

During his 2012 attempt, three were killed, among them a responding Red Cross worker, while several others were wounded when his heavily armed followers tried to rescue him from the Kidapawan City jail.

The gunmen that attacked the Kidapawan City jail set off powerful improvised explosive devices as they escaped after failing to breach through its main gate, whose uniformed sentries traded shots with them.

He was transferred to the Maguindanao provincial jail three weeks after the botched attempt to spring himself out of detention.