APO involvement in Bar blast now more apparent

MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is looking into the possible involvement in the Bar exams blast of two fraternity brothers of main suspect Anthony Nepomuceno.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the two fraternity brothers of Nepomuceno in the Alpha Phi Omega (APO) allegedly helped him escape from four members of another fraternity, Beta Sigma Lambda, who tried to stop him from running away after lobbing a grenade at a crowd outside the De La Salle University campus on Taft Ave. where the Bar exams were held.

She declined to name the two so as not to jeopardize NBI operations to track them down. The NBI is under the Department of Justice (DOJ).

De Lima appealed to the APO leadership to help authorities locate the two or convince them to surrender. “I am instructing the NBI to seek the help of the lawyers who accompanied Nepomuceno when he came out because they have committed to cooperate with investigators,” she said.

Nepomuceno was with Vice President Jejomar Binay and other prominent APO members when he surfaced recently to deny involvement in the blast.

“My appeal to them is please cooperate and turn them (two members) over to us for questioning,” De Lima said, referring to Nepomuceno’s lawyers and frat mates.

The NBI released last week a cartographic sketch of one of the two suspects. The man in the cartographic sketch, about 23 to 24 years old, 5 ft. 7 in. to 5 ft. 9 in. in height and stocky, was reportedly the one who pointed a .45 caliber pistol at a group of men trying to prevent Nepomuceno from escaping.

“If you have a situation where at least three members of the same fraternity are being implicated in the incident, what does it show to you?” De Lima threw back the question when asked if the action of the two suspects could bolster suspicion that APO had aided Nepomuceno in allegedly carrying out the attack.

“My instruction to the NBI is to fast-track the investigation. We owe it to Raissa Laurel and other victims,” she said, referring to one of the victims – a law student – who lost her legs in the blast and for which she has drawn widespread sympathy.

The Justice secretary also reiterated her call for legislation that would regulate activities of fraternities and sororities. “Fraternities and sororities are created for noble objectives, including peer support, but because of this incident, there ought to be command responsibilities for officers and elders of fraternities,” she said. “And I’m talking about the undergraduate fraternities – the bolder ones that have become prone to trouble-making.”  

NBI firm on Nepomuceno

De Lima also revealed that the NBI is sticking to its initial findings that Nepomuceno is the primary suspect even if the Manila Police District has launched a separate probe on the incident.

“I assume that the MPD has its own report, but they have been silent,” she said.

De Lima said she has also asked the NBI to also look into similar grenade explosions at the La Consolacion College in Manila in 2008 and at the University of Perpetual Help in Las Piñas City last March, where 22 and 14 people were injured, respectively.

“I want to know if those two incidents have any relation to the La Salle incident,” she said.

“Why was it not pursued and the perpetrators not identified? We need to know if these (incidents) are interrelated,” she added.

The NBI has filed multiple frustrated murder and multiple attempted murder charges against Nepomuceno, citing testimonies of a female law student, a pedicab driver and an eatery owner.

The first witness claimed to have seen the suspect, who was wearing dark glasses and carrying a dark colored backpack, lob a grenade. The witness said the suspect’s face was covered with a dark handkerchief.

“Harangin n’yo! Harangin n’yo! Siya yung nagpasabog (Don’t let him go, he did it)!” the witness claimed to have shouted at the panicking crowd, according to the NBI.

But two men came to the suspect’s rescue, one even brandishing a gun. “The man who held the gun was seen pressing the trigger but by some cause other than his own spontaneous desistance the gun did not go off. Anxious of the gunman the frat men backed down. Thus, the trio was able to wiggle free and run towards the path going to Estrada Street,” the NBI said.

The second witness told investigators that he saw the suspect, pale and panting, hide inside a red pickup after the scuffle. Two women and another man then also boarded the vehicle and covered the suspect before going to Good Choice restaurant on Leon Guinto Street.

The third witness said APO members had rented the eatery beside the Good Choice restaurant for the Bar exams.