Justice Secretary Hernando Perez made this disclosure along with State Prosecutor Peter Ong, head of the six-member panel that investigated the case, at a briefing at the DOJ’s multi-purpose hall.
Ong clarified to newsmen, however, that the charges were only in connection with the bombing that specifically took place in the Blumentritt station of the Light Rail Transit, where most the 22 victims died.
Indicted for multiple murder, multiple frustrated murder and multiple attempted murder were Hadji Onos, alias Moklis, Muklis or Mocles; Col. Efren Torres and Sammy Arinday. No bail has been recommended for the release of the trio.
Similar charges against their alleged cohorts — Amir Dimaampao, alias Amer; Salvin Camama, Ibrahim Guindolongan, Roberto Onyot, alias Alberto or Bert, and Rogelio Cagadas — were thrown out due to "insufficiency of evidence."
Onos and his co-accused are the second batch of suspects after the government dropped charges against Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Hashim Salamat and six others for purposes of "political reconciliation."
Simultaneous bombings took place during that fateful day in several parts of Metro Manila — the Light Railway Transit station in Blumentritt and Plaza Ferguson near the US Embassy both in Manila, a cargo warehouse near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Parañaque City, an Edsan bus along EDSA in Cubao, Quezon City and an abandoned gas station in Makati City.
The prosecutors, composed of Ong, Melvin Abad, Jose Dumangas, Nestor Lazaro, Stewart Allan Mariano and Aristotle Reyes, recommended the inclusion in the Witness Protection Program of three witnesses whose testimonies led to the indictment of Onas, Torres and Arinday.
The three civilian witnesses identified the suspects in a cartographic sketch provided by police. Onos was identified as the man who was carrying a dark sports bag on the LRT and who alighted without it at the Tayuman station in Sta. Cruz. The next LRT station after Tayuman is Blumentritt, also in Sta. Cruz, where 19 people died as passengers rushed to get home in time for New Year’s Eve.
Onos was quoted by the witnesses saying in Filipino as he elbowed his way through the crowd: "Let me pass. I’m getting off the train. You (passengers) should also get off." Minutes later a powerful pipe bomb ripped through the coach.
"It is evident that there was a unity of purpose in bombing LRT and unity in the execution of such unlawful objective on the part of Onos, Torres and Arinday," the DOJ stated. "There being conspiracy...each one is held in the same degree of liability as the others."
No links of the three accused to terrorist groups have been established.