Fifty-five convicts, or about a third of the 158 inmates who escaped from the North Cotabato District Jail, have been recaptured by authorities even as officials insisted Friday there is no shoot-to-kill order with the manhunt on its third day.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Ismael Sueno and Philippine National Police Director General Ronald Dela Rosa said there is no such order.

“There’s no shoot to kill order for them and it’s not also in our policy. But if they fight with our troops, their life might be endangered,” said Sueno in an interview by a radio station in Kidapawan City.

“I did not give shoot to kill order but they (escapees) should be arrested,” Dela Rosa told reporters in Camp Crame.

In a text message to the Daily Manila Shimbun, Chief Inspector Xavier Solda, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) spokesman, said 55 out of the 158 escapees were recaptured as of 5 pm.

Solda said 10 of the 55 inmates were killed during police and military operation.

Superintendent Peter Bonggat, provincial jail warden, appealed to escapees to surrender. “We are aware that not all of them have planned to escape,” he said.

He said Acting North Cotabato Governor Shirlyn Macasarte-Villanueva directed all mayors to accept inmates who will surrender. Robina Asido/DMS