About 13 inmates escape prison in Philippines

More than a dozen inmates have escaped from a jail in the Philippines, the latest in a series of prison breaks in the Southeast Asian country.

Authorities said 13 detainees, facing drug charges, made their way out of the jail in San Fernando City north of the capital, Manila, before dawn on Sunday.

“They sawed through the bars of the metal grille,” said Derrick Arnold Carreon, a spokesman for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, adding that an investigation was underway to find out how they got the tools that they used to escape.

The prisoners are still on the run and security forces have launched a widespread manhunt to track them down.

Prisons in the Philippines are usually overcrowded, poorly maintained, and inadequately guarded.

SS