By CYRUS M. GARDE
BACOLOD City — Two jail guards of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Talisay City were facing charges over the escape of an inmate.
Jail Officer 1 Junel Moreno and Jail Officer 3 Victor Servo will be investigated and could be charged with serious neglect of duty, said Senior Jail Officer 3 Leo Lacerna, BJMP Region 6 investigation and detection chief.
Lacerna said the two jail guards had been restricted at BJMP–Talisay and ordered to explain in writing. Once found guilty, he said, they could be dismissed from the service.
Servo and Moreno were on duty when 24-year-old Arman Toledo Penalo of Talisay, a robbery and frustrated murder suspect, fled the facility on Sunday.
Penalo escaped on foot, fleeing toward a sugarcane plantation, when he was tasked to throw garbage outside the jail premises.
Moreno and Servo chased the suspect, who was committed to the facility on December 22, 2010, but failed to catch him.
This was the first time that an inmate escaped from the Talisay facility. A hot pursuit has been launched against Penalo.
BJMP–Talisay chief Jail Senior Insp. Nillon Magbanua was relieved by virtue of command responsibility. He will be temporarily assigned to the BJMP regional headquarters.
Jail Senior Insp. Felix Sariana of BJMP Region 6 replaced him.
Lacerna said Magbanua will be investigated, too, and could be administratively charged./PN
