Inmate in child rape case hangs self in prison

By ERWIN MASCARIÑAS
Correspondent .

BUTUAN City — An inmate, behind bars because of a child rape case, was found hanging in an isolation cell at the Agusan del Norte Provincial Jail in Barangay Libertad here on Tuesday.

The dead inmate was identified as Bonifacio Pagaran, 40, of Purok 5, Barangay Agong-ong, Buenavista in Agusan del Norte.

Pagaran was arrested by the Buenavista police in March after he was charged with raping a relative for several years. According to the report, Pagaran started raping a teenager since she was 13 years old.

Fermin Anenorio, provincial jail warden, said investigators were convinced that Pagaran committed suicide, and that he hanged himself between 6 am to 6:45 am.

Pagaran, he said, had asked for coffee earlier that morning.

Anenorio said Pagaran used a shirt and tied it around his neck with the other end tied to a wooden block. He said the inmate hanged on a blind spot and so, no one immediately saw him.

He noted that Pagaran bolted from jail but was captured by jail guards at a nearby residential area a day before the apparent suicide.

“This man used to climb and harvest coconuts for a living and so, he climbed over our prison perimeter fence,” said Anenorio.

Anenorio said Pagaran was placed in an isolation cell after he was recaptured by jailers who chased and even fired shots at him.

The jail warden said Pagaran had tried to poison himself a few days after he was first brought to the facility in May but other inmates stopped him from committing suicide.