|
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Sayyaf leaders charged for Makati bus blast
By Benjamin B. Pulta and Jonathan F. Fernandez
MANILA -- Government prosecutors filed murder and frustrated murder charges Monday against Abu Sayyaf bandits and other militants arrested in connection with the bombing of a bus on February 14 in Makati City.
Gamal Baharan, alias Tapay, and Angelo Trinidad, alias Abu Khalil, were named in separate charges for multiple murder for the deaths of four people and multiple frustrated murder for various physical injuries sustained by 63 persons from the bus blast.
No bail was recommended for Baharan and Trinidad.
Also charged were Abu Sayyaf bandits who have remained at large but who were found to have played a role in the bombing.
They include Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani, a certain Boy Negro, Jackie or Zaky and Jainal Sali or Abu Solaiman, self-proclaimed spokesman of an Abu Sayyaf terror cell.
Solaiman, the prosecutors said, promised in a radio interview a Valentine's Day gift for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and this turned out to be the bombings of a bus in Makati, bus terminal in Davao City and mall in General Santos City.
The case against the arrested suspects was based on the sworn statement of bus conductor Elmer Andales who identified Baharan and Trinidad as the two persons who suspiciously boarded the bus and who disembarked shortly before the explosion.
Other witnesses were Julashrey S. Abhtahi and Omar M. Pael.
Baharan and Trinidad admitted their role in the bombing during an interview with a local TV network, said prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco.
The two are also subjects of an outstanding warrant of arrest dated Oct. 7, 2004 and issued by Isabela, Basilan Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Danilo M. Bucay in connection with a kidnapping case
They were arrested in separate operations in San Juan and Madaluyong City by joint operatives of the military intelligence office and Mandaluyong police station.
A third suspect, Gappal Bannah, surrendered to authorities last week after being pursued by the army and police for days. Bannah allegedly supplied the explosives used by Baharan and Trinidad for the Valentine's Day bombing.
Still another suspect was arrested over the weekend in connection with the Makati bus blast.
Rahib Buday, 49, of Barangay Layog in Pagalungan town in Maguindanao, admitted he was among four renegade members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who bombed a theater at SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City in 2000 that killed one person and injured 20 others.
Rahib Buday, 49, said the attack was meant to scare away investors and to project that government was "not in control of the situation".
Buday is the third suspect in the cinema bombing.
His cohorts, namely Dante Matu Ambo and Danny Buday Boisan, were arrested by police and military authorities about two years ago.
A fourth suspect in the cinema blast, Ustadz Nabel Panayaman, remains at large.
During Buday's presentation in Camp Aguinaldo Monday morning, Armed Forces spokesman Jose Angel Hondrado said they are optimistic that Panayaman would fall in government's hands in the soonest possible time.
"In the next few days, we will corner the remaining suspect," said Brigadier General Honrado but refused to give further details.
The military spokesman said they are still investigating the possible role of Buday in the bus bombing in Makati City. "The investigation will reveal whether he is really involved or not. But it is too early for us to prejudge the case," he said.
Major General Raul Relano, commander of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, and Army spokesman Bartolome Bacarro said Buday, who was arrested in his suspected hideout in Pagalungan, Maguindanao, was involved in the bus bombing.
Recounting the events prior to the SM Megamall bombing, Buday confessed to military interrogators that sometime in 2000, Panayaman asked him to accommodate Ambo and Moisan in his home at the Maharlika Village in Taguig City.
In May that year, while inside Buday's house, Panayaman gave Boisan and Ambo the explosives, which were placed inside a shoebox. The two strapped the explosives to their bodies and assembled the bomb inside the cinema's comfort room. (With AP)
(March 8, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
