PHILLIPINES - A small hole on the fence of the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) was enough for six inmates to go through and escape unnoticed Friday.

However, one of them was recaptured at a checkpoint minutes later after his “smell” gave him away.

Officer Leo Labata could not identify who among the passengers in a jeepney was an inmate until he noticed Randy Canino Java, 23. He is facing a case for possession of illegal drugs and concealing a deadly weapon.  Java allegedly gave off a smell unique to inmates at the BBRC.

His body was also reportedly full of tattoos and he acted “suspiciously” when guards searched the jeepney.

Aside from Java, the rest of the escapees were identified as Randy Revamonte Rayala, 23; Edgardo Mollandeda Batanes, 26; Garsol Gabuya, 22; Emerick “Ikoy” Abadiano, 25; and Cesar Saban, 20.

Cases

Rayala, a resident of Banilad and a native of North Samar, was recently convicted of murder. His transfer to the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila was being processed.

Batanes is facing a case for drug possession while Gabuya has a pending case for drug possession and concealing a deadly weapon.

Abadiano has pending cases for direct assault, four robbery cases, one for frustrated homicide and one for possession of a firearm.

Saban is facing a murder charge.

They remain at large.

It was officer Labata, who noticed the hole at 4 a.m. and fired a warning shot.

Teams were immediately sent to conduct checkpoints surrounding the jail while the Cebu City Police Office was alerted.

Mastermind

Labata later caught Java inside a PUJ at a checkpoint that they set-up near JY Square Mall.

Java would not say who masterminded the escape, saying he merely followed his fellow inmates.

Jail guards found a steel tube from a folding bed and a rock beside the hole, which warden Supt. Efren Nemeño believes was used to bore a hole on the concrete wall.

Nemeño said he was disappointed in officers Victoriano Vince and Freddie Perez, saying the hole was visible from where they should have been standing.

Vince was assigned to man Tower 2 while Perez was assigned to Tower 3.

The hole is directly under Tower 2, but Nemeño said anyone standing in Tower 3 would also be able to see inmates jumping out of the hole.

The two towers are at the end of a wall facing Barangay Apas.

Both guards were ordered restricted pending investigation.

They may also be temporarily assigned to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) 7 office.

At City Hall, unless he is convinced the BJMP 7 has “cleansed its ranks,” Mayor Tomas Osmeña will not allow the transfer of BBRC male inmates to the new facility in Barangay Kalunasan.

He would rather have the City Government spend for other things, like funding dancesport contestants in international events, than financing “something with low returns.”

Osmeña said he cannot assure the safety of the residents in Kalunasan if the inmates are transferred at this time when the jail management cannot address security concerns.

The mayor expressed the same sentiments when two jailguards were arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation 7 in an entrapment for allegedly collecting “taxes” from visitors last February.

Chief Insp. Efren Nemeño, BBRC warden, though, continues to enjoy the City Government's confidence despite what happened yesterday.

Assistance

He can only do so much, said City Councilor Augustus Pe Jr., who sponsored a resolution the City Council approved last week that set aside almost P100,000 as assistance to BBRC.

The amount was used to send 30 insular inmates to the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa.

Pe figured that financing the transfer of insular inmates is another way of helping decongest BBRC.

City Councilor Procopio Fernandez, however, is optimistic that once everything is in place Kalunasan, Osmeña might change his mind. Fernandez heads the the City Council's committee on police, fire and penology.

Officer Vince said he was roving the catwalk of the jail, which was why he did not notice the inmates below boring a hole.

But Nemeño said that a guard stationed at one of the towers was not required to go roving.

He also said that even if Vince did go around the catwalk, he would not have gotten far and would still have noticed the six inmates.

Tarnished

Nemeño, who assumed his post at the facility last February, admitted that the incident could tarnish his clean record, but said he expected this when he took the job as warden of the BBRC.

He said he was not remiss in reminding his personnel to be always vigilant.

He cited the weak concrete wall and the lack of vigilance on the part of his personnel as the reasons for the escape.

He said the job as warden of BBRC was a challenge on his part and that he did not regret getting assigned to Cebu City.

Councilor Fernandez said, though, that relieving Nemeño was not a solution to BBRC's problems.

He told Nemeño to make sure the problems in the BBRC reach the BJMP Central Office.

This was after Nemeño told him that there were only 81 guards including himself, and that the number was divided into escorting personnel, administrative personnel, tower guards and standby forces.

They were also divided into eight-hour shifts.

This means, only eight jail guards are watching more than 2,543 inmates.