Notorious Korean prisoner escapes in Tarlac restaurant

Gov. Pineda: P300,000 reward for his arrest

By Nelson Bolos

TARLAC CITY --  A “notorious” South Korean national detained in Pampanga Provincial Jail for killing 3 fellow Koreans escaped from his five guards in a restaurant here Tuesday around 10 a.m.

Lt. Col Joel Mendoza, this city’ police chief said Park Wang Yeol, 41, escaped through the ventilation window of the comfort room of Julia’s Kambingan in Barangay San Rafael after attending a hearing at the Tarlac Regional Trial Court Branch 64.

This, as Pampanga Gov. Dennis Pineda offered P300,000 reward for the capture of Park.

Mendoza said Park is facing a charge of illegal possession of firearm here when he was caught carrying an unlicensed pistol during his arrest in Barangay Balete in 2016 for his triple murder case in Pampanga.

Park was brought at the court here to attend his arraignment on illegal possession of firearms by 5 Pampanga provincial jail guards PG1s Randy Sibug, Danilo Gonzales, Carlo Layag, Clarito Mendoza y Franco and Danilo Aragon, said Mendoza’s report.  

On their way back to Pampanga after the hearing, along with Park’s girlfriend Elvie Fider y Samson, 32, of Barangay Balete here, the group stopped at the Julia’s Kambingan to eat.

Upon entering the restaurant, Park went straight to the comfort room unescorted because the five guards and Fider sat on the table and ordered their food.

Minutes later, the guards discovered that Park escaped through the small window of the comfort room.  

“Meron din kaso  yan na (RA) 9165 o drugs sa Metro Manila, pero nakatakas din siya doon kaya notorious talaga siya,” Mendoza said.

Park, along with another Korean identified only as Kim, was accused of killing three other Koreans in a sugarcane field in the town of Bacolor, Pampanga.

According to a Korean newspaper, Park and Kim, apparently, took their victim’s cash of more than $2,000 and around $600,000 which were intended to be invested in a business.

As this developed, the five jail guards were charged by Pampanga Provincial Warden Col. Edwin Mangiliman (retired ) before a court here for infidelity in the custody of prisoner  and are now detained at the PPJ.