GENERAL SANTOS CITY — The provincial government of South Cotabato has offered a P100,000 reward for the recapture of two “notorious” inmates who bolted from the South Cotabato Rehabilitation and Detention Center or provincial jail in Koronadal City last Monday.
South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance-Fuentes said Thursday the move is aimed to assist the ongoing manhunt operations against the escapees by three recovery teams formed by the provincial jail management.
She said the reward money, which is P50,000 for each escapee, will be given to any person who can be able to provide information that would lead to their arrest.
“We need to do this as these are notorious personalities facing serious cases and they have done this (escape) before,” she said.
Inmates Andy Evangelista, 30, and Oting Mando, 23, escaped from the provincial jail at around 4:30 a.m. Monday by destroying the lock of their cell and eventually climbing over its perimeter fence.
The escape was the second for Evangelista, who had been charged with three counts of carnapping before the Regional Trial Court Branch 26 in Surallah town. He escaped from the facility in February 2015 but was later recaptured.
Mando, who had previously attempted to escape, was detained at the provincial jail several years ago for theft and robbery charges but was later released.
He is currently facing charges for violation of Sections 5, 11 and 12 or selling and possession of dangerous drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia, under Article II of Republic 9165 or Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Fuentes said she considered issuing a shoot-to-kill order for the two but jail warden Juan Lanzaderas already directed the recovery teams to “get them dead or alive.”
The governor said she has given jail personnel one week to recapture the escapees before they face the investigation team formed by the local government.
“It will be a comprehensive investigation. It clearly happened because of negligence by some personnel and we will deal with that,” she said.
Citing her initial assessment of the incident, Fuentes said the duty jail guards could have been sleeping when the inmates escaped.
She cited that the portion of the perimeter fence where the escapees climbed over was located near the jail’s main gate and should have been noticed easily by the jail guards.
Lanzaderas earlier said the entire facility was in total lockdown but the escapees took advantage of the lack of duty jail guards over the weekend.
He said two of their jail guards were earlier removed from their usual posts to secure an inmate who was confined at the South Cotabato provincial hospital. (PNA)
