RECAPTURED Bilibid inmate Michael Cataroja yesterday told senators he escaped the national penitentiary last month out of boredom as no one from his family was visiting him.
Cataroja appeared before the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights hearing to explain how he escaped last July 7 from the New Bilibid Prison’s maximum-security compound.
Asked by panel chief Sen. Francis Tolentino, who presided over the inquiry at the Bureau of Corrections office in the national penitentiary, why he escaped, Cataroja said: “Kusang loob po ako na tumakas, masama po ang loob ko at wala po akong dalaw. Sobrang bored lang po. Wala pong dalaw (I escaped on my own because I was mad as no one was visiting me.
I was very bored. No one was visiting me.)”
He apologized to BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. as well as his fellow inmates, including members of the Sigue Sigue Sputnik gang which counts him among its members.
“Pasensiya na po kayo sa BuCor sa nagawa ko. Bahala na po sila sa BuCor kung ano ang gagawin nila sa akin (I apologize to the BuCor for my escape. I am leaving my fate to the BuCor,” he said.
Cataroja said the other inmates, including his gangmates, were mad at him because of the restrictions imposed on them following his escape.
He also thanked the police for not killing him when they rearrested him at the residence of a relative in Angono, Rizal.
“Pasalamat nga ako na binuhay pa nila ako (I am thankful that they allowed me to live),” he said, adding he knew of inmates who were killed after escaping.
Cataroja was committed to the national penitentiary on July 26, 2022 for violating Presidential Decree 1612 or the Anti-Fencing Act Law. He also has a pending carnapping case before the Regional Trial Court Branch 71 of Antipolo City.
Cataroja, 25, managed to evade authorities for a month before he was rearrested by operatives of the Angono police last Thursday.
During the hearing, Cataroja told senators he escaped by clinging to the bottom of a garbage truck that exited the national penitentiary on the morning of August 7.
He said he was helping bring garbage to the truck when he saw a chance to escape and later showed them how he did it. He added he alighted from the truck along C-6 Road and then walked all the way to Antipolo City.
Cataroja had earlier claimed, during his recapture, that he simply walked out of the Bilibid gates by pretending to be one of the people visiting the inmates.
“Hindi po totoo ‘yun. Nagsinungaling po ako sa kapulisan (It’s not true. I lied to the police),” he said.
Sen. Robinhood Padilla, claiming he was a representative of the inmates, said it was “unfair” for them to suffer the consequences of Cataroja’s escape.
“It is not fair, it is not the same if thousands of prisoners pay for the mistakes of one, two, or three prisoners. When I was imprisoned here, not all prisoners were bad. Many still wanted to change and reform their lives,” he said in Filipino.
Padilla was convicted for illegal possession of firearms in 1994 and gained his freedom in 1997 after then-President Fidel Ramos granted him a conditional pardon.
Catapang assured Padilla that BuCor will not penalize the rest of the inmates for Cataroja’s mistake.
“The privileges will remain and family visits will continue. We will just tighten our security arrangements and we will review conjugal visits. In the meantime, overnight conjugal visits will be temporarily put on hold,” he said.
Catapang said they also need to review the policy allowing some inmates to assist in garbage collection.
The BuCor said it will release the result of the investigation by its Board of Inquiry on Cataroja’s escape within two weeks.
