HE ADMITTED killing the 14-year-old boy on Leon Kilat St. last Thursday night.
Mamaenty Abdul Emam, 24, said he had also planned to kill Racquel Arce, head of the Cebu City Prevention, Restoration, Order, Beautification and Enhancement (Probe) team.
Emam is allegedly a member of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), based on the patch authorities saw on the military uniform he wore in a photo he posted on Facebook.
City Intelligence Branch Chief Romeo Santander said they are also verifying reports that Emam belongs to a gun-for-hire group.
First kill
When Emam was nabbed in the southern town of Santander last Friday dawn, police did not find the firearm he used to shoot Morshid Macaombao Bao.
Emam, however, denied being a member of the BIFF.
He said he used to belong to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). He said he left Marawi City for Cebu in 2012.
“MILF ko pero nag-undang na ko pero wala ko niingon nga niundang na gyod ba, niari god ko sa Cebu para magpakabuotan ba (I left the MILF but it does not mean I really quit; I left for Cebu to become a good person),” Emam told reporters.
He also denied being a gun-for-hire.
Emam said Morshid was his first kill.
“I shot him in the head because they were ganging up on me and they were mauling me and I was only getting back at him,” he said in Cebuano.
He said he had no idea why they were mauling him, considering they both sell stolen and used cell phones on the sidewalk on Leon Kilat St. He said he thought they were friends.
Emam said he had also planned to kill Arce when the latter imprisoned his wife for selling socks on the sidewalk in 2013.
“I would have killed her had she not freed my wife, but she let my wife go,” Emam said in Cebuano.
Profiling
National Commission of Muslim Filipinos Visayas Director Malou Manonggiring went to the Cebu City Police Office yesterday.
“We can see in the pictures that this person (Emam) is a criminal. He should be punished according to the law, especially that it (murder) happened during Ramadan,” she said.
Santander, for his part, said he submitted a report to the Armed Forces of the Philippines for the profiling of the suspect.
Police received information that Emam was a member of the BIFF, not the MILF.
Manonggiring said the killing was an isolated case and should not be taken as a threat to the security of Cebu, which will host the Asia-Pacific Economic summit next month.
The victim’s father Faisal Bao, 63, said they will file a case against Emam.
“We want to file a case that will put him to prison until his death. My son was a minor. He was studying in school,” Faisal said in Cebuano.
Coordination
Faisal said his son were on their way home when the suspect shot Morshid in the head around 10:45 p.m. last Thursday.
Senior Supt. Marciano Batiancela Jr., CCPO officer-in-charge, said he tasked Santander to coordinate with intelligence units in Mindanao to confirm Emam’s membership with the BIFF.
Asked how he felt after shooting the victim, Emam said, “komportabol kaayo (very comfortable).”
He was about to flee to Dapitan with his younger brother and wife when police caught up with him in Santander.
In another incident, police arrested a 25-year-old man for allegedly hitting the heads of two minors with a hammer in Barangay Lobo, Sogod, Cebu last Saturday night.
According to initial investigation, Carlos Arnado Bracero got mad at Kerby dela Cerna Jalang, eight, and latter’s brother Kerwin, six, for playing while watching a movie inside the suspect’s house.
Admission
The suspect grabbed a hammer and allegedly hit the boys’ heads.
Neighbors rushed the victims to Juan B. Dosado Memorial Hospital in Sogod, but the brothers were later transferred to a hospital in Cebu City.
PO2 Mary Grace Debulosan of the Women and Children’s Protection Desk said the victims are still in the hospital.
“They can still talk and recognize their parents,” she said in Cebuano.
Debulosan, in a phone interview, said they will charge Bracero with serious physical injuries in relation to Republic Act (RA) 7610, or the Special Protection of Children against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act.
The officer said the suspect admitted he hurt the boys with a hammer.
However, Bracero denied he was hooked on drugs.
RA 7610 punishes any person “who shall commit any other acts of child abuse, cruelty, or exploitation or to be responsible for other conditions prejudicial to the child’s development.”