CHR: Was Usman a PNP guest?

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) twitted the Philippine National Police (PNP) yesterday for saying the escaped principal suspect in the April 21 bombing of a shopping mall in General Santos City was not charged at the time of his escape.

"What was he in jail for then — as a guest?" CHR Chairman Purificacion Quisumbing asked in reaction to a PNP claim that suspect Abdul Basit Usman was neither a suspect nor a fugitive at the time of his "escape" last week.

Quisumbing made the remark after PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said that police could not commit Usman to jail.

But Quisumbing said she finds it "very unusual" that Usman was in jail without being charged in the first place.

She noted that the law is very clear that no person may be held in jail without any charges filed against him in court as she reminded police officers to observe due process in the prosecution of accused criminals.

"The rule of law should not be sacrificed in the name of the fight against terrorism," she said. "The rule of law and the fight against terrorism should go together."

Usman, tagged by witnesses as the one who planted the bomb that exploded in front of the Fitmart shopping mall, killing 15 people and wounding at least 60 others, escaped from police custody while being held at the Sarangani provincial police headquarters in Alabel town last Oct. 26.

Regional Trial Court Judge Antonio Lubao issued an arrest warrant against Usman for multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder only three days after the suspect escaped from jail.

Ebdane was in Sarangani Tuesday to personally conduct an investigation into the incident. He placed the blame on the judge who, he said, failed to act on the complaint field by the police last Aug. 16.

"He cannot be detained because he is not the subject of an arrest warrant, and if we jailed him we would be violating his human rights," he said.

He said the court required the police to amend the complaint filed against Usman, who was only named as alias Usman in the warrant of arrest issued against the suspects in the bombing.

Police said the court refused to issue an order to commit Usman to jail because his name was not clearly determined in the arrest warrant.

Ebdane criticized the court for not acting promptly on Usman’s case and said he will not impose sanctions on any police officials because of Usman’s escape. He admitted though to lapses in the police investigation on the case against Usman. - Romel Bagares