Korean detainee and escapee, Park Wang Yeol, 41 (PNA Photo)
Pampanga Governor Dennis Pineda offered a P300,000 reward for the immediate capture of a detained Korean national who slipped away from his jail escorts while they were returning to the prison facility from a court in Tarlac City.
The suspect, Park Wang Yeol, 41, had been detained at the Pampanga Provincial Jail for three counts of murder in Bacolor, Pampanga and is undergoing trial for illegal possession of firearms at the RTC in Tarlac City.
Provincial administrator Charlie Chua bared that the reward money was first disclosed by Pineda after talking to Korean Embassy consul Lee Jinsoo who appealed not only for the prompt arrest of Park, but also for the filing of charges against the escort guards who did not secure the detainee.
The governor then ordered the preventive suspension and filing of a criminal charge of infidelity in the custody of a prisoner against the five jail guards, identified as Randy Sibug, Clarito Mendoza, Danilo Gonzales, Danigen Aragon and Carlo Layag.
The escape happened while Park and his jail escorts, coming from the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 64 in Tarlac City, made a stop-over at a roadside eatery as they head back to the Pampanga Provincial Jail.
While all five escorts went to the table to order food inside the eatery along MacArthur Highway in Barangay San Rafael, Tarlac City, Park proceeded to the toilet where he made his way out through the ventilation window.
Since 2016, Park had been detained at the Pampanga Provincial Jail for three counts of murder in Bacolor, Pampanga and is undergoing trial for illegal possession of firearms at the RTC in Tarlac City.
Police are still finding out if Park had already left the country. (Jojo Mangahis)