Armed men attack Cotabato jail, free scores of prisoners

COTABATO CITY (4th UPDATE) - Armed men with links to Muslim rebels sprang over 150 inmates from a jail compound in a midnight raid that also left one of the facility’s guards dead.

The detainees escaped amid bursts of gunfire during the attack on the Amas provincial jail, located behind the North Cotabato capitol in Kidapawan City around 1 a.m. Wednesday, authorities said.

Jail officer Excell Ray Vicedo died at the hospital after sustaining a gunshot wound during the attack, North Cotabato police director Senior Superintendent Emmanuel Peralta said.

Of the jail's 1,511 inmates, 158 managed to escape, according to jail warden Supt. Peter Bonggat Jr.

Bonggat said the more than 100 attackers were led by a "Commander Derby," a member of a breakaway group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and a former detainee who escaped from the same jail last year.

Bonggat said six inmates involved in the jailbreak were recaptured after trying to take some hostages.

"We were able to recover anim accordingly kasi nang-hostage po yung anim so na-pin down po natin sila," Bonggat told ANC.

(We were able to recover six after they held several people hostage.)

A follow-up report said five inmates were killed during a pursuit operation.

The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) national headquarters said there were ongoing operations within the jail vicinity and the surrounding area as well as ongoing manhunt operations on the escapees.

Troops fired mortar rounds to the back of the jail, where some of the escapees were believed to be hiding.

MILF spokesman Von al-Haq told AFP the group did not know who the attackers were and was contacting its members to get more information.

The MILF has about 10,000 armed followers, but they have been observing a ceasefire with the government as part of the peace efforts.

The southern region of Mindanao has been plagued by a decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency as well as a number of criminal gangs, some of whom have pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS) fighters.

More than 120,000 people have been killed in the rebellion.

President Rodrigo Duterte has been seeking to promote broad peace in the predominantly Catholic country.

While the MILF is aiming for peace, there are various breakaway groups that are determined to continue fighting and have declared allegiance to the IS group.

The Maute group, regarded as one of the most dangerous extremist organisations, freed 23 inmates in a jailbreak last year in a nearby city.

Several prison breaks have previously occurred in the region, with pro-IS extremists freeing 23 detainees in a series of escapes last year. – with Agence France-Presse and Reuters