The entire police force of Jolo, the capital town of Sulu province in the southern Philippines, was sacked today, according to the Philippines National Police.
This came after 29 inmates, mostly facing drug charges, escaped from a jail cell in war-torn Jolo over the weekend. Seventeen of the 29 detainees have been recaptured.
Jolo is a base for the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group and authorities said they were investigating whether or not the inmates who escaped had links with the militants.
“A guard went on break, went to the toilet and when he left, the inmates found a way to escape. They picked the lock of the jail cell and fled,” regional police spokesman Senior Inspector Jemar Delos Santos told AFP.
“We are heightening security around the perimeter of the island municipality and securing ports so that they would not be able to leave Jolo,” he said. “The jail had a capacity of about 50 inmates and was located near a port.”
Last September, almost the entire Caloocan police force was sacked for alleged human rights abuses; officers who remained in the force had to undergo retraining before being moved to another assignment.
While they blamed “laxity” for the escape, the police are also investigating the possibility of collusion between police officers and the inmates who planned the jailbreak.
According to Delos Santos, all police officers assigned to the station are in the custody of the Philippine National Police pending investigation.
with reports from ABS-CBN News
