KIDAPAWAN CITY -- The jail warden of Cotabato City was relieved from his post pending investigation on the escape of 16 inmates past midnight Wednesday.
The relief order for Inspector Buenaventura Pedrita came from Senior Superintendent Romeo Ugoy, regional director of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in southwest Mindanao. It was issued a day after the inmates broke out from the Cotabato City Jail.
Pedrita was replaced by Chief Inspector Fulgencio Branden.
Pedrita, in an interview over radio station dxMS in Cotabato City, denied the allegations that he refused to allow inmates to do communal prayer during Fridays inside the facility.
He said praying inside the facility doesn't need his permission. "Those were baseless allegations," he said.
Pedrita also denied reports that some of the jail guards have been manhandling the detainees.
The jail, he said, is overcrowded and the budget for the BJMP in Cotabato City is not enough to support the needs of the prisoners.
The Cotabato City jail holds about 260 inmates facing charges of murder, drug trafficking and weapons possession.
The 16 inmates escaped from the jail by cutting the iron bars of their cell and using blankets to lower themselves into a nearby river.
Cotabato Mayor Japal Guiani Jr. said Thursday that only Danny Herbias was recaptured.
The search for the remaining 15 is still ongoing. (Malu C. Manar of Sun.Star Davao/AP/Sunnex)
