Janjalani, 6 others face V-Day raps

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed multiple murder charges yesterday against Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani and six other people in connection with the Valentine’s Day bombings that killed 13 people in three cities.

Janjalani and his alleged cohorts in the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf are facing cases of multiple murder, frustrated murder and illegal possession of firearms before a regional trial court in Makati City, where six victims died and over a hundred others were wounded when a bomb exploded in a passenger bus along EDSA.

State Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco named Janjalani’s co-accused as Jacky Zacky, Gamal Baharan (alias Tapay), Angelo Trinidad (whose aliases are Abu Khalil, Maidan and Boy Negro), and Abu Sayyaf commander Jainal Sali (alias Abu Solaiman). Two others have yet to be identified.

Velasco also filed charges of illegal procurement of firearms, ammunition and explosives for violation of Section 2 of Republic Act 8294 against Baharan.

He said only Baharan and Trinidad are currently detained at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, while the rest are still at large.

Velasco recommended no bail for any of the accused.

Baharan and Trinidad were arrested two weeks ago in connection with the bombing in the financial district of Makati. Two other bombs went off in the southern cities of General Santos and Davao on the same day as the Makati bus attack, killing seven other people.

"The highest evidence against respondents Baharan and Trinidad with respect to their direct participation in the Feb. 14, 2005 incident is their voluntary confessions made to news reporters," read a joint resolution by the state prosecutors’ office.

Shortly after the bombings, Solaiman went on a local radio station to claim responsibility for the attacks, saying they were in retaliation for the government’s anti-insurgency campaign in Mindanao.

Trinidad and Baharan also gave their own confessions in subsequent interviews with the media, Velasco said.

"He (Trinidad) stated that he was bothered by his conscience. The following day, Baharan in a television interview voluntarily admitted his alleged role in the incident. The admissions by both respondents were imbued with details previously known only to them and their cohorts," he said.

A witness, the conductor of the bombed bus, had also told investigators that Baharan and Trinidad "suspiciously boarded the vehicle and thereafter hurriedly alighted from it a few minutes before the explosives went off."

Baharan is among the joint Philippine government-US Department of Defense list of most wanted men for murder, extortion and kidnapping.

Explosives seized from Baharan at the time of his arrest in Mandaluyong City included boxes of caliber .45 ammunition, blasting caps and accessories for electrical C-4 demolition charge, as well as time fuses, paraphernalia for C-4 explosives, a hand grenade and one plastic container of TNT.

The Abu Sayyaf is a small and brutal group of Islamic militants that US and Philippine intelligence authorities have linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network.

Last Saturday, a fourth suspect in the Feb. 14 bombing spree, Rahib Buday, was collared by authorities in Maguindanao province.

But while the government is on a roll with its series of arrests in the terror attack, the grandmother of a suspect in a foiled bombing in Quiapo last Christmas turned the tables by filing murder charges against ranking officials.

Eufemia Nastor accused Philippine National Police chief Director General Edgar Aglipay, Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes and four other police officials of murdering her grandson and allegedly "recycling" a terror suspect.

Nastor claimed police "abducted" her 24-year-old grandson Allan Borlogdatan last Dec. 15 without a warrant and implicated him in an attempt to bomb a G-Liner Bus in Manila last Dec. 24.

In a five-page complaint, Nastor denied her grandson was a member of the Abu Sayyaf and accused the police of "planting the explosives" when he was arrested.

Nastor said the victim’s cadaver showed signs of "torture" that included 12 gunshot wounds — one to the head.

"His wrists also showed handcuff marks and his toenails were mutilated," she said.

She lamented the arrest and "neutralization" of her grandson was purportedly used by officials to further their promotions, among them Director Roberto Delfin, chief of the Police Anti-Crime and Emergency Response, and Chief Superintendent Ismael Rafanan.

Nastor named the two, along with Reyes, Aglipay, Metro Manila police chief Director Avelino Razon and Senior Superintendent Fernando Mendez as respondents in the complaint.

The suspect’s lola (grandmother) claimed the police officials "conspired" to make it appear that her grandson was a terrorist.

"There exists a clear pattern of conspiracy between Reyes, et al, to deceive the public by convincing the media into believing that they were competent, knowledgeable, aware and above par," Nastor said.

She also claimed Borlogdatan was used as a scapegoat by Rafanan and Delfin, and in the "flamboyant lobbying" of Razon to be the next PNP chief.

Ceasefire now

In another development, a senator joined by Mindanao public officials urged President Arroyo yesterday to declare a ceasefire in order to contain the prolonged conflict in Sulu.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said the call was meant to lessen the war’s impact on more than 50,000 civilians displaced due to fighting between the military and suspected followers of jailed former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) governor Nur Misuari.

Pimentel met with ARMM Gov. Parouk Hussin and Mindanao congressmen in Manila to reach a consensus and consolidate their calls for the violence to stop in the poor ARMM province.

The senator clarified they are not out to oppose the President, who earlier said there would be no "let-up in punitive actions" against the gunmen, rejecting a proposed truce.

"Our concern is for the establishment of a just and lasting peace in Mindanao so that the peace effort that we are having with the MILF will not be jeopardized," Pimentel said.

Meanwhile, an arrested Abu Sayyaf extremist tagged in a series of kidnappings in Basilan, including that of three Americans and 17 Filipino tourists from a posh resort in Palawan in 2002, was presented to the media yesterday in Zamboanga City.

Rasidin Mohammad, alias Abu Rasa, was captured by authorities last Friday in the coastal village of Arena Blanco, east of this city at the height of an intense manhunt.

Mohammad, 45, who also goes by the alias Rasam, was an original recruit of slain Abu Sayyaf founder Ustadz Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani who joined the group in 1995.

Mohammad told the military during tactical interrogation that he went into hiding after he stole the M-16 rifle of one of Khadaffy Janjalani’s trusted escorts. He said he had been shortchanged of money promised to him by the group.

"He was not paid for his services as courier of the group" who had used his pump boat, said Col. Domingo Tutaan, Southern Command chief of staff.

According to Tutaan, Mohammad has four warrants of arrest against him for his direct participation in the 2002 kidnapping, as well as in a massacre case in barangay Balabo in Lamitan, Basilan and the kidnapping of and beheading of five coconut farmers in Lantawan, also in Basilan.

Mohammad was captured by combined elements of the Military Intelligence Group 9 (MIG) and the anti-terror unit of Col. Jovencio Magalso of the Task Force Zamboanga in his hideout. — With reports from AFP, Delon Porcalla, Christina Mendez, Roel Pareño