Coup Plotter Escapes in Manila Jailbreak

Hooded gunmen stormed a Manila jail before dawn today and freed a leader of the December revolt against President Corazon Aquino while the prison guards held a birthday celebration for a deputy warden.

Investigators said guards were drinking inside the prison when the raiders broke in and whisked away Lt. Col. Billy Bibit in a stolen vehicle after wounding a police officer in a brief exchange of fire.

Four other inmates held for common crimes were also freed in the raid, police said.

In a statement to reporters, the Young Officers’ Union, a shadowy group linked to the failed coup, took responsibility for the jailbreak.

Hours before the daring action, Gen. Renato de Villa, military chief of staff, had warned that mutineers would try to free some of the more than 2,200 officers and enlisted men held in connection with the failed coup last Dec. 1-9.

Officials said about 150 mutineers remain at large.

Police Sgt. Florentino Bagallon said the stage was set for the raid when jailers ordered beer from a nearby restaurant for a birthday celebration for Capt. Manuel Roxas, the prison’s deputy warden.

When they opened the compound gate to allow the delivery man inside, about 15 masked gunmen forced their way in, disarmed the guards and then pried open Bibit’s cell, Bagallon said.

Bibit and the others fled in two cars and a van, he added.

At about the same time, armed men attacked the police station next to the jail in a hail of gunfire, disarmed police officers and cut telephone lines from the building.

Police said they were preparing negligence charges against at least two of the prison guards. The guards refused to talk with police Superintendent Col. Ernesto Diokno until they had conferred with a lawyer.

Bibit, most recently assigned as intelligence chief of the customs bureau, was arrested in January for allegedly raiding the customs armory to provide weapons during the coup attempt, in which 113 people were killed and more than 600 wounded.

Bibit was described as a member of the core group that planned and led the coup attempt. He was the only alleged coup participant among the Manila jail’s 300 inmates, police said.

Also Saturday, De Villa told a fact-finding panel that cashiered army Col. Gregorio (Gringo) Honasan, leader of the December uprising, had vowed to rescue mutineers detained aboard a prison ship.

But De Villa dismissed the rebels’ ability to carry out their threat, saying they were only capable of such isolated actions as assassinations, hostage-taking, commando raids and psychological warfare.

The December rebellion was the sixth and most serious challenge to Aquino since she took power in February, 1986.

In February, Bibit, along with opposition Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, was indicted in a criminal court on charges of participating in the December attempt.