Security risks at North Cotabato provincial jail mounting

KIDAPAWAN CITY -- The detention at a provincial jail here of about 600 drug offenders identified with big cartels or are related to Moro commanders is a nightmare security officials try to live through each day.
Several inmates, among them foreign-trained bombers implicated in deadly attacks in North Cotabato province, were sprung from detention at the same facility by guerillas armed with assault rifles and B-40 anti-tank rockets about a decade ago in an attack that shook Central Mindanao to its core.Detainees at the North Cotabato provincial jail in Barangay Amas here on Friday padlocked for about half a day the entrance gate to the facility and staged a noise barrage in protest of new stringent detention rules.

The acting provincial jail warden, Superintendent Peter Bungat, Jr., told reporters the measures were imposed to ensure the safety of detainees and to forestall possible jailbreaks, which repeatedly happened in recent years.The detainees were protesting a ban on bringing in of food by visitors and staying in the jail premises beyond visiting hours.Jail guards recovered dozens of bladed weapons, improvised truncheons and mobile phones from detainees as negotiations to end the noise barrage went on.Bungat said they have no way but enforce very strict security measures owing to the presence of high-profile crime suspects in the jail. There are also inmates who are identified with big drug syndicates,” he told reporters.

More than a dozen detainees are also either members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, or are related by blood to notorious Moro guerilla commanders.The detainees eventually ended their protest action after having been assured by the jail management of action on their sentiments.Local officials agreed with Bungat’s assertion on the need to tightly secure the North Cotabato provincial jail and even assured of their support to his management of the facility.Three were killed, among them a Red Cross rescuer, while a dozen others were wounded in a bungled attempt by gunmen to spring from the nearby Kidapawan City jail bandit gang leader Datukan Samad about five years ago.Samad, most known as Lastikman” and being prosecuted for multiple murders, drug trafficking, armed robbery and extortion, was eventually transferred to a police facility in Manila after a two-year detention at the Maguindanao provincial jail in Cotabato City where he twice attempted to escape.Bungat said they will continue to enforce their new security policies meant to prevent any untoward incident in the North Cotabato provincial jail.

He said they will see to it that the rights of the detainees are protected as they implement their stern security measures.Records obtained from local courts, the provincial police and the jail management office indicated that about 60 percent of the more than 1,000 detainees at the North Cotabato provincial jail are being prosecuted for drug offenses.