By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
With three escapees from the Negros Occidental District Jail (NODJ) still on the lose, the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOCPPO) has placed the police stations in the entire province on heightened alert.
NOCPPO spokesperson Lt. Abegael Donasco said following last Tuesday’s escape, the police immediately started monitoring the possible areas the escapees might go through.
Donasco added they have started digging further into the backgrounds of the escapees, especially notorious crime group leader Francisco Epogon.
The Murcia Municipal Police Station also released some findings on how the escapees may have reached the town.
If looked into the map between the areas of Bacolod City, Bago City and the town of Murcia, the NODJ’s location sits next to the Abuanan-Sum-ag Road.
It is possible that the escapees traveled the Abuanan-Sum-ag road and once reaching the crossing of the Murcia-Bago City road, traveled north along the city’s Barangay Damsite and into Murcia town’s Barangay Cansilayan.
However, since it is very likely that the escapees would have already known that the BJMP and police have started looking for them, they could have also avoided traveling the major roads and instead headed northeast by crossing the Sum-ag River and into Bacolod City’s Barangay Felisa, ending up in Murcia’s Barangay Blumentritt where they were eventually tracked down.
Earlier on Wednesday morning, Daniel Tamon and another escapee Marvin Celeste were recaptured in Barangay Blumentritt’s Hacienda Velez after their group allegedly robbed a group of sugarcane workers in the area.
Marvin was later declared dead at a hospital in Bacolod City after he was shot by police during a gun battle.
Authorities are still looking for Epogon, Danilo Celeste and Alejandro Montoya. The BJMP has also set a bounty of P10,000 for anyone who can give information to the arrest of each of the escapees.
Meanwhile, Tamon is set to undergo RT-PCR test prior to being returned to NODJ.
Atty. Jairus Anthony Dogelio, spokesperson of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) Region 6, said Daniel Tamon has been brought to the BJMP’s isolation facility and will soon undergo swabbing.
Once he tests negative for COVID-19 he will immediately be brought back to prison.
In response to the blunder at the NODJ, the BJMP’s regional office has released a memorandum for all district jails in Western Visayas to temporarily ban the entry of the prisoners’ belongings, except for essential items such as medicines, vitamins and supplements.
Dogelio also said they suspect that the entry of the prisoners’ belongings could have been used in order to smuggle contraband inside the jails./DGB, WDJ