EDITORIAL - Porous jails

In March 2005, a riot erupted at the detention center of the National Capital Region Police Office at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig. The center held the largest group of high-risk inmates in the country, among them Abu Sayyaf terrorists and kidnappers. Notorious Abu Sayyaf bandits Ghalib “Robot” Andang and Alhamser Mantad “Kosovo” Limbong grabbed the weapons of their jailers, killed three of them plus a detainee, then held about 100 other inmates hostage on the third floor of the jail facility. After a daylong standoff, special police teams stormed the jail and gunned down 16 of the inmates including Andang.

The riot prompted calls for better security at all detention facilities nationwide, particularly the one at Camp Bagong Diwa. That was nearly five years ago. How much improvement has been made?

Still not enough, according to NCRPO officials themselves. The police command in Metro Manila is preparing for the possibility that suspects in the Maguindanao massacre, among them members of the Ampatuan clan, might be detained at Camp Bagong Diwa. The camp jail currently holds 217 inmates classified as high-risk, including members of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf. A recent survey of NCRPO detention facilities showed a lack of basic surveillance equipment such as closed-circuit TV cameras. Jail guards also lack training for the job, according to police officials.

Wherever the suspects in the Maguindanao massacre are detained, everything must be done to prevent them from escaping. A riot could precipitate a mass jailbreak. Or else someone could allow the top suspects to walk to freedom. It wouldn’t be the first such case in the annals of the Philippine National Police.

Jemaah Islamiyah bomb maker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, the Indonesian terrorist convicted in connection with the Rizal Day 2000 bombing of the Light Rail Transit and other spots in Metro Manila, escaped from PNP headquarters at Camp Crame together with two Abu Sayyaf suspects, on the day that the prime minister of Australia was visiting Manila. Pentagon kidnap gang leader Faisal Marohombsar also escaped from Camp Crame. Only recently, MILF members raided the Basilan provincial jail and freed 31 inmates, at least one of them a commander of the separatist group. Those behind the Maguindanao massacre have greater capability than the MILF to stage similar jailbreaks. The government must do everything to prevent this.