Leyte government urges DOJ to conduct impartial probe into prison fire

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines – Leyte Governor Dominico Petilla has asked the Department of Justice to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into the fire incident that razed the maximum security compound building of the Leyte Regional Prison in Abuyog town last October 8, and killed at least 10 prisoners.

Petilla’s statement came in response to questions from the media on the possible cause of the fire, amidst public suspicion that it was intentionally done allegedly to cover up illegal drugs controversies, hounding the LRP over the past years until now.

Jail officials had however insisted to the media that the fire could have been caused by faulty electrical wirings.

The governor said the result of the impartial and scientific investigation being conducted by the DOJ will erase the public suspicion on the possible cause of fire.

Investigators from the national office of the Bureau of Corrections, which is under the DOJ, have been scheduled to investigate into the reports of illegal drugs abuse inside the LRP.

Ten prisoners of the maximum-security building died during the fire, but the BuCor denied reports that five of them were charred dead while being locked up in isolation cells.

In an interaksyon.com report, BuCor national Director Ricardo Rainier Cruz III said the five were in what served as the prison’s psychiatric ward and perished when the blaze that broke out at the maximum security compound spread too fast to the prison hospital for rescuers to save them.

The LRP was constructed 42 years ago for a capacity of 500 inmates but there were 1,895 inmates before the fire broke out. The razed MSC building will also be replaced with a new one, said prison officials.

An LRP official, who requested anonymity, admitted to the media the LRP is one of the most overcrowded jails in the country, and with poor facilities.

The same official also said LRP also caught fire due to faulty electrical wirings in 2013, killing one inmate, and it was also damaged by super typhoon Yolanda that same year.