Zamboanga court defers Janjalani arraignment

ZAMBOANGA CITY — A regional trial court here reset to Aug. 22 the arraignment of Abu Sayyaf leader Hector Janjalani and 43 other suspected Abu Sayyaf members and supporters.

RTC Branch 16 Judge Jesus Carbon also remanded the cases of 27 of the 43 to the city prosecutor after the court found that they had no lawyers and had not undergone preliminary investigation.

Carbon ordered the local Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) chapter, through lawyer Asbi Edding, to provide lawyers for the accused.

The postponed arraignment and the re-investigation practically wasted extensive security preparations involving dozens of police and military personnel, armored personnel carriers and bomb-sniffing dogs.

Janjalani, brother of Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadafy Janjalani, was flown via commercial flight from Manila under heavy guard and arrived here past 6 a.m.

The handcuffed Janjalani was immediately whisked to a waiting armored personnel carrier and brought to the city police station detention cell to wait for his court appointment.

The 43 other accused, who were detained in the city reformatory centers, were separately brought to Justice Hall at the Pettit Barracks where the arraignment was held amid heavy security.

The 43 accused, escorted by jailers and policemen, wore yellow t-shirts with the printing "I love BJMP 9."

Two armored personnel carriers patrolled the vicinity of the Justice Hall while bomb-sniffing dogs were dispatched to preempt possible sabotage of the proceedings.

Janjalani was to be arraigned for the kidnapping of American Jeffrey Schilling and other abductions committed by his group last year while the 43 others face charges of involvement in the kidnappings.

Janjalani was arrested in a Manila shopping mall last year while trying to sell a videotape of Schilling in captivity to local and international news networks.

But Janjalani said he was innocent and was only being charged because he was the brother of Khadafy and Abu Sayyaf founder Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, who was killed by the military in Basilan in December 1998.

"This is what always happens when you are a Muslim: they step on your rights," said Janjalani, who requested and was allowed to be detained in Zamboanga rather than be flown back to Manila.

Even as Hector was brought before Carbon’s sala, the military pressed its search for his brother Khadafy who is believed to be holding American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham.

Army Maj. Alberto Gepilano, spokesman for Task Force Comet, a joint military team that is running after the Bandits, said the military had a general idea of the location of Khadafy and his 21 hostages.

But the bandits "are highly mobile and have been moving from one place to another to avoid detection by the military."

One of Khadafy’s men, identified as Abdullah Mohamad, was arrested here shortly after arriving on a ferry from Basilan island, where Khadafy is believed to be holed up.

But in nearby Sulu island, at least eight Abu Sayyaf members, confirmed to be members of the faction of Ghalib Andang, alias Commander Robot, surrendered to the military in Talipao town.

Gepilano said the eight surrendered at dawn yesterday in Barangay Upper Binuangan following the negotiation conducted by Talipao Mayor Tamrin Tulawie.

The authorities, however, withheld the names of the surrenderees pending debriefing at the headquarters of the 104th Army Brigade in Barangay Busbus in Jolo, Sulu.

Also yesterday, police raided a local hotel shortly before dawn to arrest Mayor Dorie Kalahal of Tuburan, Basilan, for allegedly protecting Abu Sayyaf bandits in his town.

But Kalahal escaped arrest after local officials intervened to end a standoff between police and his security guards.