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North Cotabato cops assure jail escapees they will not be harmed if they surrender

COTABATO CITY, Jan. 11 (PNA) -- Police authorities in North Cotabato assured fugitives of North Cotabato District Jail (NCDJ) on Wednesday that they will not be harmed if they decide to voluntarily surrender.

The assurance was issued by Chief Inspector Joyce Birrey, PNP provincial police spokesperson.

"There's no truth to words spreading around that the police will execute on sight any of the 89 fugitives who remained at large," Birrey told a news conference.

Some of the inmates who bolted the provincial jail last week after gunmen attacked the facility to rescue a drug lord said their companions who are still hiding are afraid to surrender for fear they will be shot dead and make it appear they resisted arrest.

"There is no basis to that information, there is no shoot to kill order," she added.

Gunmen, numbering about 12 (not 100 as earlier reported), stormed the undermanned jail compound in Barangay Amas, Kidapawan City at 1 a.m. on January 4, freeing 158 inmates.

Forty eight of the 158 prisoners have been arrested, two were injured and eight were killed during the manhunt operation.

During the attack, Jail Officer John Rey Vicedo was killed and 158 inmates escaped.

Many of them refused to leave their cells but the attackers threatened to shoot them or set the jail facility on fire, according to one of the escapee who voluntarily surrendered three days later.

The provincial government has offered PHP1 million for anyone who can provide information leading to the arrest of Esmael Nasser, alias "Commander Derbi," and another PHP1 million for Melvin Casangyao, a suspected drug lord who allegedly funded the operation to set him free, Governor Shirlyn Macasarte-Villanueva said.

A PHP10,000 bounty was also offered for any of the other escapees.

Macasarte-Villanueva said Nasser was a former detainee of the provincial jail who developed friendship with the moneyed Casangyao. Nasser, charged with murder, bombing and kidnapping, bolted jail in August last year.

He led the attackers on January 5.

Police said fugitives who wanted to surrender may consider showing up to local or town officials who will escort them back to the provincial jail to erase fear they will be executed.

Birrey said there are already surrender feelers received by the local police offices in the province and it was a good sign the fugitives will return to the fold of the law.

Meanwhile, the transport sector in Tulunan town, a neighboring municipality of Kidapawan City, has offered to help the police arrest the fugitives if they happen to board their tricycles.

Chief Inspector Felix Fornan, police chief of Tulunan, North Cotabato, said the 150 members of the drivers' association offered to provide the information and asked for photos and other information of the fugitives. (PNA)

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