Raps filed vs 7 in Sema slay try

MANILA, Philippines - Criminal charges were filed yesterday against seven Cotabato City officials and a police officer for the foiled ambush on Cotabato Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema last Jan. 10.

Charged with frustrated murder and three counts of attempted murder were Cotabato City Mayor Japal Guiani Jr., Cynthia Sayadi, her husband Omar Sayadi, city councilors Graham Dumama and Abdilla Lim, barangay chairman Amil Sula and Inspector Noel Gutierrez, former deputy station commander of Cotabato City.

Director Samuel Pagdilao Jr., chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said the CIDG and Special Investigation Task Group Sema filed the charges with the Department of Justice.

In a report to Pagdilao, Superintendent Leo Quevedo, CIDG-Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) chief, said CIDG investigators found out that the assassination attempt on Sema was planned long ago and that the suspects conspired to kill Sema.

“Based on investigation, politics was the motive behind the attempt to kill Sema. Sema was a three-term mayor of Cotabato City before he won the vice mayoralty race last 2010 elections,” Quevedo reported.

Quevedo said Sema is planning to run again for mayor of Cotabato City in the 2013 elections and the suspects conspired to stop him from running.

“According to witnesses’ accounts, Mayor Guiani and the other suspects were seen together in a firing range owned by city administrator Sayadi. Omar brought a blue bag containing a baby armalite with a silencer on its barrel and fired it,” the CIDG-ARMM chief said, adding that the meeting took place in December 2011.

Quevedo said the blue bag was recovered from Abdullah when Sema’s bodyguard retaliated after the suspect fired at the vehicle the vice mayor and his companions were riding.

He said Gutierrez was named as a respondent for deliberately withholding vital evidence to the case.

“As police first responders, Gutierrez ordered his three subordinates to search the wounded gunman Zermin Abdullah for any deadly weapon. During the search on Abdullah, policemen seized a cellular phone, which they gave to Gutierrez. The police officer allegedly tried to influence his subordinates not to report the recovery of the mobile phone, and deny if anybody would ask about it,” said Quevedo.

 Gutierrez’s three subordinates, however, defied the instruction and reported the recovery of the cellular phone. Gutierrez has denied about the phone and refused to turn over the evidence to the investigating team.