July 17, 2003, The Philippine Star, Four Filipino guards charged over escaped terror suspects,

July 17, 2003, The Philippine Star, Four Filipino guards charged over escaped terror suspects,

Four police officers have been charged with evasion through negligence and serious neglect of duty, punishable by dismissal, the Philippine National Police spokesman Lt-Col Bataoil said, following the escape of three terror suspects from Camp Crame on 14 July. One guard was asleep and another "out shopping", a Philippine daily has reported the CID head as saying. There are concerns al-Ghozi may have left the capital despite "all possible" exit points being sealed. 

Following is an excerpt from report in English by Philippine newspaper The Philippine Star web site on 17 July; subheading as published:

The Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) filed a criminal complaint yesterday against four police officers over the escape of Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi and two Abu Sayyaf bandits from detention at Camp Crame last Monday [14 July].

The CIDG filed the charges before the Quezon City prosecutor's office as the manhunt for the terror suspects extended to three countries.

Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Lt-Col Leopoldo Bataoil said the four police officers - Superintendent Guillermo Danipog, Inspector James Dime, Senior Police Officer 3 Ruperto Principe Jr and PO1 Ronald Palmares - were on duty at the time of the escape.

Aside from charges of evasion through negligence, Bataoil said the police officers were also charged administratively with serious neglect of duty, punishable by dismissal.

Bataoil stressed other police officers could also face similar charges over the escape.

CIDG chief Director Eduardo Matillano said criminal charges are also being readied against Superintendent Reuben Galban, head of the Foreign Intelligence Liaison Office (FILO), and Superintendent Carlito Natanuan, headquarters commandant of the Intelligence Group (IG).

Matillano said investigation showed the four police officers were negligent of their responsibilities, particularly pointing to Palmares as lax in the performance of his duty to conduct routine physical accounting of all detainees.

He said one police guard was asleep and a second was out shopping when al-Ghozi and two Abu Sayyaf members sauntered out of the cell.

"The guard who was supposed to be there 24 hours a day was sleeping in the other room," Matillano said.

"The lead guard was absent; he was not at his post at the time. He said he had gone somewhere to buy something and saw nothing unusual when he came back," he said.

"There were some lapses on the part of security," Matillano said, as he revealed investigators found the jail cell was "intact and sustained no damage", with padlocks still in place.

Matillano said their findings reveal the escapees simply walked along the main hallway, down the stairs to the ground floor and left through the main gate.

The escapees include al-Ghozi, an alleged senior leader of the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), and suspected Abu Sayyaf members Abdulmukim Edris and Omar Opik Lasal, both accused of kidnapping.

Al-Ghozi is on trial for allegedly staging a bomb attack on a Light Rail Transit (LRT) station on 30 December 2000. He is also serving a 17-year jail term for illegal possession of firearms.

Matillano said it took five hours for the guards to discover the jailbreak, when the cell was physically inspected.

One of the inmates informed the guards early Monday morning that there had been a prison break but they did not believe him as the padlock on the cell remained intact, Matillano said.

He said the guards were also remiss in their duties to conduct an hourly headcount of inmates under their care. Rather than physically inspecting the cells and recording their findings in the prison logbook, they just signed the logbook without checking.

Principe, the sergeant of the guards, and Palmares, the guard detail, have been restricted to quarters and charged with "infidelity in the custody of prisoners", Matillano said.

Criminal charges are also being prepared against their superiors, he added.

"Had it not been for the negligence of the detailed group duty officer, officer of the day, sergeant of the guard and duty jail guard, the escape of Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, Edris and Lasal could have been avoided," Matillano said.

A major embarrassment

[passage omitted] National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the Philippines has raised a general alarm and enlisted the help of Indonesia and Malaysia in what he said could be the region's biggest manhunt.

"All authorities are on alert and watching possible exit points of al-Ghozi," Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said, adding that various agencies are coordinating with their counterparts abroad.

"The escape of these three is clearly a setback to the international war on terror," US Embassy spokesman Frank Jenista said in a television interview yesterday.

Jenista refused to discuss US assistance in recapturing the suspects but said the joint centre for counter-terrorism in Malaysia was a coordinating agency for international cooperation on such cases.

He said Washington has asked for the results of a formal investigation "and if it turns out some people were derelict with their duty, we would hope to see that there would be appropriate application of sanctions depending on what the investigation shows".

There have been widespread calls, especially from senators, for dismissal of ranking officials over the security breach that Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina called "an inside job".

An angry president ordered the immediate filing of charges against police involved "up to the highest level of command responsibility probable" and the creation of a single, maximum-security jail for high-profile prisoners.

On Tuesday, the government said it was offering an 8m-peso bounty for the recapture of the escapees - 5m pesos for al-Ghozi, 2m pesos for Edris and 1m pesos for Lasal. [passage omitted]

Mrs Arroyo had formed an independent commission to determine whether there had been a conspiracy that led to the escape.

"We regret the negative repercussions of this incident and we shall get to the root of the matter," Mrs Arroyo said in a statement.

Matillano said a nationwide manhunt has been launched although it was not clear if al-Ghozi was still hiding in Manila.

"We have sent operatives all over the country. We hope they are still in Manila because we have sealed all possible exits, airports and seaports," Matillano told reporters.

Immigration authorities, for their part, are now reviewing surveillance tapes from all the country's airports.

Metro Manila police chief Deputy Director-General Reynaldo Velasco, however, said there was a possibility that al-Ghozi may have slipped out of Manila.

Velasco said police have asked the help of Muslim communities in Manila to help flush out the fugitives if they are still in the capital.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer described the escape as "disappointing" and said any underestimation of the threat of JI in the region had been quashed by the escape of one of its key operatives.

Downer said the successful arrest and trial of those suspected of the Bali bombings, which claimed 202 lives, may have overshadowed the threat the JI posed in the rest of the region.

"I don't think we should underestimate for a minute how difficult this battle against terrorism in Southeast Asia is," he said.