Police see more sinister reason for escape of drug convicts

CAMP PACIANO RIZAL, Laguna, Philippines— Police are seeing a resumption of drug manufacturing in the Philippines following the successful gangland-style mission to spring three Chinese drug convicts from a Cavite jail recently.

Chief Superintendent Benito Estipona, Calabarzon police chief, said the convicts were still in the country and their escape could be meant just to allow them to resume drug manufacturing.

On February 20, Chinese detainees Li Lan Yan, also known as Jackson Dy, his wife, Wang Li Na, and Li Tian Hua were snatched by 14 men, believed to be members of the Ozamiz robbery gang, as they were on their way to attend a court hearing in Trece Martires City, Cavite.

The Chinese nationals were arrested and convicted in 2008 when authorities shut down a shabu laboratory in Tanza, Cavite, operated by Dy’s group.

“Do you think they were sprung  just so they could slip out of the country? I don’t think so. They are chemists, and what do chemists do?” Estipona said on the sidelines of a press briefing on Laguna police’s accomplishment report, held here.

The Laguna police on Tuesday presented to media 309 firearms seized and surrendered to them since January in light of the election gun ban.

In an interview, Estipona said he believed the three convicts were still in the country based on an intelligence report he received on Monday.

He cited two provinces, outside Calabarzon, where the fugitives may have gone into hiding, but he requested that the information be withheld.

The Philippine National Police formed two task forces to work on the case, according to Chief Insp. Reynaldo Magdaluyo, head of the Cavite Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

He said aside from the Ozamiz gang, another group which could be part of a Chinese drug “triad” could be keeping the convicts.

He said the CIDG was preparing charges against Cavite jail warden Romeo Montehermoso Jr. and other jail personnel for infidelity in the custody of prisoners.

Several officials are demanding a deeper investigation of the escape of the Chinese drug convicts, saying there could be a bigger plot involving big-time drug syndicates to spring them.