After the Maguindanao jailbreak incident that saw another high-profile inmate and 10 others walk their way out to freedom past a nearby police station and a military detachment, President Aquino is seriously looking at the idea of compelling the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology to take over all provincial and local jail facilities.
In a press briefing, deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte spoke of the  President’s preference to transfer high-risk and high-profile detainees transferred in a jail facility in Bicutan, Taguig City.
Valte also disclosed that Aquino favors the idea seen more than just transferring escaped detainee Commander Lastikman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) but an effort to place all provincial and local jail facilities under the BJMP, which he declared has the competency to ensure confinement of suspects in cases pending resolution.
She added that the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has similarly been pushing  a BJMP takeover as part of the government’s reform measures seen to define responsibility and culpability of developments falling under the concerns of the detention service facility.
“The recommendation of the DILG on that is to transfer high-profile detainees to a secured detention facility, preferably in Bicutan and for the BJMP to takeover the local and provincial jails. In fact, according to Secretary (Jesse) Robredo, the BJMP has already taken over a local jail facility before and continues to be on top of it. So instead of just moving them — of moving high-profile detainees or inmates to MBP, the BJMP would take over provincial and local jails,” she added.
Asked for details as to what sanctions (if any) await the jail personnel of the detention facility where the jailbreak took place, Valte said: “I understand from my conversation with Secretary Jesse Robredo is that Gov. Mangudadatu had already ordered the relief of the officials doon sa provincial jail.”
The Tuesday incident portrayed Aquino in an embarrassing situation as he was prior seen and heard on top of his voice boasting of an overhauled government penology system, seen as behind a high recovery rate of escapees.
Eleven escapees, who used a steel saw to cut the iron grills of their detention cell, reportedly went past a police headquarter and a military detachment, in an early Tuesday morning jailbreak that was hardly noticed.
The same report claimed initial efforts to recapture the fugitives resulted in the arrest of two of the 11 escapees, led by one Datucan Samad, also known as Commander Lastikman, a noted Moro Islamic Liberation Front leader facing a string of criminal charges for which he has been confined behind bars.
A massive manhunt has already been ordered on the nine remaining fugitives.