A Bilibid inmate who was recaptured in Angono, Rizal last August 17 yesterday told the Board of Inquiry of the Bureau of Corrections that he escaped from the national penitentiary last month by clinging to the bottom of a garbage truck.
The BOI, created by BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang, is composed of BuCor Deputy Dir. Gen. for Administration Al Perreras, Deputy Dir. Gen. for Operations Gil Torralba and lawyer Ferdinand Balduman, chief of the Intelligence and Investigation Division.
With armed jail guards watching, Michael Cataroja claimed he clung to the bottom of a garbage truck making its way out of the national penitentiary, a change from his earlier claim that he simply walked out of Bilibid by pretending to be a visitor.
Cataroja was committed to the national penitentiary on July 26, 2022 after he was sentenced for violation of Presidential Decree 1612 or the Anti-Fencing Act Law. He also has a pending case of carnapping before the Regional Trial Court Branch 71 of Antipolo City.
When he was captured by Angono police, Cataroja initially claimed he made his escape during the visitation period at the maximum-security compound, telling Angono municipal police chief Maj. Lauro Leyva Moratillo that he “copied” the mark stamped on visitors.
Catapang said the BOI will continue its probe on Cataroja’s escape as well as the liability of BuCor officials and personnel.
The BuCor, with the assistance of the Philippine Coast Guard and the National Bureau of Investigation, initially searched Bilibid’s septic tanks on the suspicion that Cataroja might have been killed and buried there.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla earlier said that a decapitated body found inside a septic tank in the maximum-security compound last month was Cataroja.
Remulla later admitted he got fed the wrong information.
The NBI later told a Senate inquiry that the bones found in the septic tank were most likely chicken bones.
