IRC melee leaves 1 inmate wounded
An otherwise routinary mealtime at the Iloilo Rehabilitation Center (IRC) turned into a crime scene yesterday afternoon. This as two murder suspects out on settling an old grudge with a fellow inmate chanced upon the target and took turns in stabbing him.
The victim was identified as 44 year-old rape suspect Ronald Lorica who sustained two stab wounds, one on the chest and the other on the left side of his body. Lorica was rushed by jail guards to the Iloilo Provincial Hospital (IPH) in Pototan, Iloilo. Emergency treatment had a chest tube inserted on the victim with jail authorities told thereafter of Lorica being in stable condition.
Attending medical team described seeing an "ice pick-kind of wound" however The News Today (TNT) was told that the weapon used was an improvised knife.
A complete lockdown was ordered throughout the jail after the incident. Investigators placed the stabbing at about 4:40 pm as hundreds of inmates were lining up for food rations inside the mess hall.
Retired Police Senior Superintendent Norberto Nufable, IRC consultant, told TNT that the Pototan Police have been tapped to do the investigation. Charges, Nufable assured, will immediately be filed against the suspects identified as Cornelio Huesca and Joemari Desilao. All three involved in the melee are cellmates of Selda 36 of Area 3. Majority of those detained in this section are facing heinous crimes of rape, murder and drug charges.
At no time were other inmates were involved, Nufable clarified following initial radio reports of a jail riot. No jail guards were also put into danger with the incident controlled minutes after it began.
Weapons used was a spoon sharpened and turned into a "knife" while the other one recovered was a small scissor.
Both suspects are now in isolation while their victim remains hospitalized.
Meantime a full investigation was called by First District Board Member Richard Garin, chair of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Committee on Peace and Order.
Garin wants answers as to how the inmates managed to improvise deadly weapons inside the detention. While at it, Garin told TNT the incident calls for a thorough look on the IRC operations.