CAMP SK PENDATUN, Maguindanao – Police operatives in Marawi City and in Lanao del Sur, backed by Armed Forces of the Philippines have launched massive manhunt against 28 prisoners who fled the Lanao del Sur provincial jail after about 50 heavily armed men swooped down on the jail facility at 5:45 p.m. Saturday.
According to Chief Supt. Agripino Javier, regional director for PNP in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PNP-ARMM) based here, among those who were “rescued” by armed men were eight members of Maute lawless armed group.
Quoting a report PNP Regional Public Safety Battalion, Javier said the armed men, believed to be followers of a terrorist group, also abducted Jail Officer 3 Modasir Manwang and used him and 20 other inmates as human shields whom the attackers later released in Barangay Caloocan, Marawi City.
The eight Maute terrorist group were jailed for illegal drugs and other crimes committed in Marawi City.
Witnesses said the suspects also took from the provincial jail one M-16 Armalite rifle, and one Mitsubishi mobile car.
After releasing the inmates, the attackers herded the eight Maute group members and boarded a waiting motorized banca and sailed across Lake Lanao undercover of darkness.
Javier has appealed to residents of Lanao del Sur to help the police in locating the suspects and the inmates. He also called on the local executives of the towns surrounding Lake Lanao to provide the police with information leading to the escapees “re-arrest.”