RP acknowledges world's regret over jailbreak
RP acknowledges world's regret over jailbreak
Agencies, Manila
President Gloria Arroyo on Friday acknowledged the world's disappointment over the escape of a Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist from a Philippine jail and vowed to recapture the Indonesian fugitive.
The United States and Australia -- leaders of an international campaign against terrorism -- have expressed dismay over the embarrassing escape on Monday of Indonesian Fathur Rohman Al- Ghozi from the Philippine police headquarters.
"We understand the position of the United States and other countries and we ourselves are concerned over the safety of their nationals as well as that of our own," Arroyo said in a statement.
She said that the government was committed to recapturing Al- Ghozi and affirmed the Philippines' "strong role in the global fight against terrorism".
Meanwhile Arroyo called on the country's main Muslim separatist rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to help in capturing Al-Ghozi.
Arroyo cited the MILF's vow that they would not shelter or work with "terrorists" as a condition for resuming peace talks with Manila.
She said Al-Ghozi was "a primary test case" of the MILF vow, adding "the peace process has a large stake on this issue."
Police authorities in Manila on Friday re-enacted the escape of Al-Ghozi and two members of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim kidnap group from the police headquarters, revealing further laxity and carelessness by law-enforcers.
It was also discovered that Al-Ghozi's jail was so poorly constructed that the cell door could be bent manually.
"I saw it when I investigated. I was really shocked as well," Interior Secretary Jose Lina said.
Lina said the escape could "be plain stupidity (or) it can be a grand conspiracy".
He added, however, it was too great a coincidence that security would be so lax as to allow Al-Ghozi to flee when Australian Prime Minister John Howard was visiting Manila.
Al-Ghozi and the two Abu Sayyaf members escaped from a jail in the police camp on Monday with no signs of a forced breakout.
Philippine police, embarrassed by the escape of the notorious JI bomb maker, shifted the blame on Friday to a defective jail cell which could be opened without using keys.
"Now, we can attribute the escape not only to the human element but also to the physical defect or the structural defect of the detention cell," Police Criminal Investigation Director Eduardo Matillano told reporters.
Investigators showed the media on Friday the possible escape route of Al-Ghozi and two Abu Sayyaf members from the second floor of a 15-year-old building inside the national police headquarters in Manila.
During the re-enactment, they demonstrated how easily the jail cells could be opened even without removing the heavy-duty padlocks that secured the latch of the iron doors.
Al-Ghozi, who shared a cell with a width of about three metres and length of seven metres with an Abu Sayyaf member, may have gone past three sleeping jail guards in an adjacent room, investigators said.
The fugitives then could have walked out of the building and scaled a concrete fence out of the compound, they said.
Police officials meanwhile admitted that an Abu Sayyaf suspect and former detainee had been allowed to work as a janitor in the jail and had possibly helped the three others escape.
Matillano said that the former detainee, Abu Ali, who is a state witness on an explosives case, had confessed that several weeks before the escape he had provided Al-Ghozi with advice on fleeing the jail.
Abu Ali had earlier been freed on bail. Police are studying whether to file new charges against him.