MANILA – Police offices in Metro Manila have launched a manhunt against four of nine inmates who escaped from the detention facility of Manila Police District (MPD) Station 1 in Tondo early Wednesday.
“(I) Directed all district directors to launch extensive manhunt operations to locate and re-arrest the escapees, use all available resources and to find out what happened that led in the escape of the detainees through investigation,” National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Brig. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said in a message to the Philippine News Agency.
Investigation showed that the inmates -- Gian Carlo Rayala, Arnold Olino, Jefferson Tumbaga, MJ Tuazon, John Joseph Laguna, Albert Calayas, Andal Antipuesto, Zimar Adriano and Master Cedric Velasco managed to break the iron grill at the side portion of the jail facility and escaped at around 1:30 a.m.
Five of them --Olino, Tuazon, Antipuesto, Calayas and Adriano-- have been re-arrested in follow-up operations while Laguna, Velasco, Rayala and Tumbaga remain at large.
MPD chief Col. Arnold Thomas Ibay has ordered the administrative relief of Police Station 1 commander Lt. Col. Roberto Mupas pending an investigation into the incident. (PNA)
