‘Boy Negro’ pleads guilty in V-Day blast

Only one of six suspects in the Valentine’s Day bombings pleaded guilty at their indictment before the Makati City regional trial court yesterday on separate charges of multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder.

Gappal Bannah Asali, also known as "Boy Negro," entered a guilty plea. Asali allegedly supplied the explosives.

Two of his co-accused, Gamal Baharan and Angelo Trinidad, pleaded not guilty. Witnesses positively identified them as the ones who planted a bomb aboard a crowded Makati passenger bus last Feb. 14. Four people were killed and 60 others wounded in the explosion.

The remaining three accused — Abu Sayyaf leaders Khaddafy Janjalani and Jainal Sali or Abu Solaiman, and a certain Jacky — are still at large and will be tried in absentia.

State prosecutors will file a motion seeking a joint trial for the two charges because the accused in both cases are the same. Legal procedure requires a separate trial for each separate charge.

Branch 62 Judge Selma Aranas will hear the multiple murder charges while Branch 60 Judge Marissa Guillen will handle the multiple frustrated murder complaint.

Because a few of the Makati bus bombing victims were children and Guillen heads a family court, she will most likely try both charges, said prosecutors.

Family courts handle cases involving minors to shield them from possible psychological trauma from participating in a trial.

Security was tight at yesterday’s arraignments, held at Makati City’s old legislative session hall. Officials expected the families of the victims to attend.

The Abu Sayyaf is a small group of Islamic militants that has been linked by Washington and Manila to the al-Qaeda terror network.

Three coordinated bomb attacks on Valentine’s Day in Davao, General Santos and Makati cities killed 13 people and wounded more than 150.

The bombings were the worst terrorist attacks in the Philippines since last year’s bombing of the SuperFerry 14 off Corregidor island, in which over a hundred were killed.

A bomb believed planted by the Abu Sayyaf started a massive fire that sank the vessel in Manila Bay on Feb. 27, 2004.

Security officials blamed last month’s near-simultaneous bombings on the Abu Sayyaf, who claimed the attacks were meant in retaliation for continuing military pressure in Sulu, where troops are fighting Abu Sayyaf gunmen allied with rebels loyal to former Muslim rebel leader Nur Misuari.

Misuari’s Moro National Liberation Front signed a peace settlement with the government in 1996. Misuari was elected governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao later that year.

When his term ended in 2001, he refused to step down and threatened to renew his rebellion, accusing the government of sabotaging his efforts to bring prosperity to the region.

Misuari, detained in the police training camp Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, is currently on trial for a 2001 attack also by MNLF fighters loyal to him on a military base in Zamboanga City.