Rebels freed in Philippines jailbreak

Muslim militants storm remote prison in well-planned attack

SUSPECTED Muslim rebels staged the Philippines' biggest jailbreak when they stormed a dilapidated jail in the violenceplagued south of the country yesterday, freeing 158 inmates and killing a guard.

The attack added to a long history of daring jailbreaks in the southern Philippines, home to a decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency as well as extremist gangs that have declared allegiance to the Islamic State group.

More than 100 armed men believed to have been led by a Muslim guerrilla commander attacked the jail in Kidapawan city at about 1am in what appeared to be a well planned raid to free fellow rebels, jail authorities said.

“There are high-value targets in our custody who were the subject of a rescue operation,” jail warden Peter John Bonggat said.

The assailants were heavily armed and overwhelmed the 24 guards at the jail, according to Bonggat, who was involved in the effort to repel the gunmen and said one of his officers had been killed.

At least 158 prisoners escaped, although it was unclear how many of those were linked to the attackers.

Bonggat said the jail, which housed 1 511 inmates, was a run-down former school building in a forested area.

Kidapawan, 950km south of Manila, is home to various Muslim rebel groups, criminal gangs and communist insurgents. The attackers were believed to be militants who had broken away from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the nation’s largest Muslim rebel organisation which is in peace talks with the government.

Six of the escapees were killed and eight captured as security forces hunted them in nearby farmlands throughout yesterday, Bonggat said.

Acting provincial governor Shirlyn Macasarte said authorities had been tipped off that one of the breakaway groups, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, had been planning the jailbreak.

“We had reports that a group of BIFF members wanted to rescue brothers who were involved in killings and had experience of making bombs,” Macasarte said.

Islamic militants have staged a series of raids on poorly funded and secured jails in the south over the past 15 years that have led to mass escapes, but authorities said yesterday’s was the largest.

“It is the biggest jailbreak in our history,” Bureau of Jail Management and Penology spokesman Xavier Solda said.

“We were really underpowered and undermanned.”

Militants have attacked the Kidapawan jail repeatedly.

In 2007, gunmen freed 49 inmates there. Among those who escaped was Khair Mundos, one of the main leaders of the Abu Sayyaf, which is blamed for the Philippines’ worst terrorist attacks. He was recaptured in 2014. The southern region of Mindanao is the ancestral homeland of the Muslim minority in the largely Catholic Philippines.

The MILF, which has about 10 000 armed followers, is the largest of the rebel groups that have been fighting since the 1970s for independence or autonomy. More than 120 000 people have been killed in the rebellion.

The MILF has in recent years been observing a ceasefire as part of peace efforts with the government. – AFP