EDITORIAL – Foiled… this time

As of last night three jail guards were dead while at least two others were wounded, one of them critically, following a foiled jailbreak at the Camp Bagong Diwa detention center in Taguig. The only good news in this sordid affair is that the jailbreak was foiled, despite the fact that it was led by some of the most notorious terrorist suspects.

The detention center houses about 100 suspected Abu Sayyaf members, including Ghalib "Commander Robot" Andang. Jailbreak ringleader Alhamser Manatad Limbong, alias Kosovo and Hassan, is on trial for the bombing of the SuperFerry 14 in February last year. With over 100 dead and scores of others still missing, that bombing is considered the worst maritime terrorist attack in the world. Others implicated in the jailbreak attempt are on trial for various Abu Sayyaf capers including the kidnappings in Palawan and Sipadan.

With such a "VIP list" of jailbirds, you’d think the detention center, which is under the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, would implement maximum security measures. After all, it was not the first time that Abu Sayyaf terrorists had tried to bolt jail, and some previous attempts had been successful. Two Abu Sayyaf suspects had escaped from Camp Crame together with Indonesian terrorist Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi. Abu Sayyaf founding chieftain Abubakar Abdurajak Janjalani himself once escaped from government detention.

Jail custodians should have learned their lesson from the escape of Al-Ghozi and, prior to that, of Pentagon kidnap gang leader Faisal Marohombsar. Yet yesterday Kosovo and his men reportedly managed to grab the guns of several guards and nearly succeeded in breaking out of jail.

Throughout the day the nation had to listen to the demands of people who had just killed three jail guards and were on trial for multiple murder and kidnapping. They even found allies in the usual publicity-hungry politicians and human rights advocates who were falling all over themselves to get into the picture and sabotage police negotiations. And we wonder why the country is turning into a terrorist paradise.