MANILA: Philippine police say 13 inmates, some accused of murder, have escaped from a provincial jail in a central province using a smuggled gun to disarm guards.
Police Senior Supt. Ricardo de la Paz says the inmates pointed a pistol and improvised knives at three guards, disarming one of them yesterday in Sagay city in Negros Occidental province.
One inmate fired at and destroyed a padlock at the main gate, allowing him and a dozen other inmates to make a dash to freedom.
Police scoured a vast sugarcane field but failed to find the inmates, three of whom were facing murder charges.
Dozens of jailbreaks occur in the Philippines each year due to lax security and dilapidated prisons, which have been derisively called among the most porous in the world.
Communist rebels free 4 govt militiamen
An army spokesman says communist rebels have freed four government militiamen seized in the southern Philippines this week but are still holding five other captives, including two policemen. Maj. Leo Bongosia says the militiamen were released yesterday in Agusan del Sur province after negotiations by a municipal crisis management team.
He says the men, who were seized Monday at a rebel checkpoint, are being debriefed.
Bongosia says local officials are still working to free two policemen and three militiamen seized during separate rebel attacks Sunday in Agusan del Sur and adjacent Surigao del Sur province. Regional rebel spokesman Jorge Madlos has said captives found not to have committed human rights violations and other abuses will be freed.
The Marxist rebellion, one of Asia’s longest, has been raging for 44 years.
