Malinao added that the entire prison facility is protected with a main alarm system but none of the guards on duty was able to sound it off as they were already held at gun point before they could do anything.
“It looked like it was planned. They acted so fast,” Malinao said. He said their target could only be the firearms as they did not hurt any of the guards men or any of the 4,172 inmates housed at cells just across the armory. None of the inmates escaped.
The Communist Party of the Philippines, in a statement on Sunday, said the guerrillas took away 101 assorted firearms, including 50 M16 and Carbine rifles, considered as one of the biggest NPA arms hauls from their enemy in recent years.
Malinao said they have yet to finish the full inventory of the firearms taken by the NPA. Aside from the firearms, bullets and grenades were also taken.
At present, he added, the ratio of guards per inmate stands at 1:25. There are only 168 guards detailed in the entire facility.
“We have many tasks in this precinct,” he said, pointing out that these tasks include, aside from guarding the premises, escorting some 1,000 inmates who go to work at the banana plantation every day. “It is very difficult to stretch the number of the guards,” he said.
The penal farms covers 5,800 hectares, 5,318 of which are banana plantations operated by Tadeco in a joint venture with the Bureau of Corrections. (Cheryll D. Fiel/davaotoday.com)
