EDITORIAL - Porous

When inmates aren’t exploding grenades in a riot or being snatched from “living out” facilities at the New Bilibid Prison compound in Muntinlupa, they are “rescued” by their cohorts right at the reception center for new prisoners.

The head of a notorious robbery gang had been detained at the NBP for only 44 days when he was freed by men on motorcycles early last Saturday morning. Police accounts indicated that Ricky Cadavero, head of the Ozamiz robbery gang, virtually walked out of the three security gates of the NBP’s Reception and Diagnostic Center, accompanied by three men who disarmed the prison guards.

Police officials have tagged the Ozamiz gang in a string of daring daylight robberies in recent years in Metro Manila, with bank armored vans, shopping malls and 24-hour convenience stores among the favorite targets. Gang members have shown a readiness to kill. Cadavero was a prime catch for law enforcers, who also recently arrested the man who replaced him in the gang. Police are still working on leads that the brains behind the gang is a politician.

Now all the police work has been wasted with the “rescue” of Cadavero by his cohorts, who reportedly posed as his visitors. The escape occurred less than a month after the NBP superintendent was sacked and National Bureau of Investigation deputy director Rafael Ragos was named the new officer-in-charge of the Bureau of Corrections following a grenade explosion in the prison grounds.

Cadavero’s escape highlights the need for a thorough overhaul of security procedures in the nation’s main prison facility. There are many other high-value prisoners at the NBP. Society can’t have them walking out of porous prisons, unrepentant, not rehabilitated, ready to rob, kidnap and kill again.