The deputy police chief of Bago City and the guard-on-duty, during the escape of three detainees, were relieved from their posts yesterday and assigned to the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office headquarters, while investigation on the March 19 jailbreak is ongoing.

Supt. Simeon Gane, Bago police chief, said the relief order for deputy chief, Insp. Jerry Nacion, and SPO2 Reynaldo Abijito, was issued Tuesday by Senior Supt. Allan Guisihan, NOPPO director, and took effect yesterday.

Nacion was the officer-in-charge of the Bago police, while Gane was on official leave, and Abijito was the desk officer and guard-on-duty, when the suspects Aris Chicuva, Ryan de la Torre, and Michael Victor Vergara, escaped. They were able to do so by sawing off the iron window grills of their detention cell, three days after their arrest March 16.

The three had been intercepted and nabbed by patrolling troopers of the NOPPO Public Safety Company, for having three homemade shotguns, a bladed weapon, and suspected dried marijuana leaves, police records show.

Police also found out that Chicuva, 27, has three pending arrest warrants for murder, three more for attempted murder, and another for frustrated murder, all issued by Negros Occidental Regional Trial Court Judge Anastacio Rufon.

De la Torre and Vergara were also linked by the police to a series of hold-up incidents in Bacolod City.

Gane said the manhunt operation against the three is still ongoing, in coordination with a task force headed by Supt. Armando Tubongbanua.

Policemen have recovered the abandoned motorcycle, believed to have been used as getaway vehicle by the escapees, in Purok Siason, Brgy. Caliban, Murcia town.

Investigation by the Murcia police showed that the Rusi motorcycle, which had a busted headlight, was taken by the fleeing inmates, after ransacking the sari-sari store of Emilio Cetera in Brgy. Balingasag, Bago City, where they took P700 in cash.

The police said they believe the three fugitives may have figured in an accident, as indicated by the motorcycle’s busted headlight.

Meanwhile, additional charges for robbery with homicide, have been filed against Chicuva, after he was positively identified by a witness as the one who robbed and killed lending firm manager Jocelyn Genovea, in Brgy. Pahanocoy, Bacolod, in January.

Chicuva was also involved in the robbery of the St. Ezekiel Moreno Monastery, in Purok San Roque, Brgy. Tangub, Bacolod City, last month, the police added.*GPB

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