JAKARTA (IslamOnline) - A spectacular midnight jailbreak yesterday in General Santos City has overshadowed moves to impeach struggling President Joseph Estrada of the Philippines.
More than a hundred Moro National Liberation Front (MILF) members stormed the prison compound and successfully freed popular commander Tahir Alonto who was serving a life sentence for murder and kidnapping alongside 64 other inmates.
The attack carried out by the MILF was professional and reminded many of the days of General Bob Denard, the famous French mercenary who toppled several African presidents in the past.
The jailbreak occurred after the firing of at least five rocket-propelled grenades destroying its walls and main gate. The attack caused the death of one of the 425 inmates and wounded four others, including the wife of jail warden Superintendent Nestor Velasquez’s and his 4-month old baby.
Reports said the attack happened as jail guards concentrated on the front gate of the building, while armed men were able to enter at the back of the compound. The attackers reportedly forced open jail doors of 15 cells and freed the inmates.
One guard was seriously wounded in the pre-dawn jailbreak.
Authorities theorized the attack was planned to free prominent MILF inmates detained inside the jail for various offenses.
The attackers then escaped using other inmates as human shields to stop jail guards from firing at them.
Philippine National Police Chief Panfilo Lacson said that five or six of the escaped prisoners were men arrested in connection with bombing incidents in General Santos earlier this year.
The jail warden admitted they were outnumbered at the time of the attack saying they did not have enough logistics supply to fend off the attackers.
Among those able to escape with Commander Tahir Alonto were four MILF members convicted for the Cabalida kidnapping; Jimmy Matalam Salamat, one of the suspects in a June 24 bomb attack in the city; and Bong Hadjula, said to be a local drug lord.
While MILF leadership has yet to take responsibility for the attack, Velazquez disclosed they are not discounting the possibility that the attack was staged to worsen the current political crisis in the country.
Joint pursuit operations by the military and Philippine National Police (PNP) are ongoing, while security and police vigils in General Santos City have been tightened.
Commander Alonto, a former Muslim separatist, was arrested in August last year after two of his kidnap victims were found dead in a deep tunnel.
Alonto, the alleged leader of the kidnapping gang, was captured in General Santos City while driving a van with three gang members.
He, however, denied any involvement in the abduction, saying his group merely took custody of the victims after another kidnap gang turned them over to him.
