In this second part of a three part entry, I will continue where I left off in "Part 1" (that always helps). When I had stopped in that preceding entry, Congressman Wahab Akbar (see my 2010 entry, "Portrait of a Warlord Part I: Wahab Akbar") had just been killed in the bombing of the Philippine Congressional complex, the Batasang Pambansa. Akbar had just left a long session at 8PM, November 13th, 2007, and was walking hurriedly outside of the building's south wing entrance when a parked black Honda XRM motorcycle packed with a powerful IED, or "Improvised Explosive Device" (as in "bomb") detonated. Immediately killed was Akbar's driver and an aide to another legislator. Fifteen people were wounded, including Akbar and two fellow Congressmen, Henry Pryde Teves, representing Negros Occidental Province from the Central Philippine Visayas Region, and Luzviminda Iligan, a Party List Representative from the Left Wing "Gabriela" party, a feminist-centric group.
Akbar and five other wounded people would die from their injuries, for a final deathtoll of eight. Using the record of entries into the south wing car park that day, the PNP CIDG NCR- PRO (Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group for the National Capital Region- Police Regional Office) traced two of those entries to a single home located near the Congressional Complex. Surveilling the home they discovered that one of the occupants, Alpaker "Abu Jundal" Sa'id, was a known Abu Sayyaf member with three open warrants relating to Abu Sayyaf's kidnapping activities in Basilan Province. Using those warrants as a pretext the CIDG accompanied the PNP SAF, or Special Action Force- the PNP's Special Operations Group, on a raid of that aforementioned home on November 15th.
Going in shooting the SAF managed to kill three of the six people in the house, including the only person with a warrant, Abu Jundal. They also critically wounded one of their own police officers but in the end the operation was hailed as a success because the two wanted men had been taken alive, Caidar Aunal and Ikram Indama, along with a third man, Adham Kusain. Inside the home PNP CIDG discovered a deed for the motorcycle used in the bombing as well as Ikram's Congressional Identity Badge, since he had, until June of that year, worked for former Congressman Abdulgani "Gerry" Salapuddin, whom Wahab Akbar had succeeded as the lone Congressman representing Basilan. Taken into custody the three arrestees were delivered to the IS-AFP (AFP Intelligence Service) where the men were reportedly tortured. Under "interrogation" all three fingered another man, Hajirun Jamiri. Then living in Metro Manila's Malate, Jamiri was the former mayor of Tuburan, a municipality on Basilan.
Raiding Jamiri's rented apartelle in Malate's Barangay San Andres on November 19th, the PNP CIDG were disappointed to find Jamiri gone. Thinking that their quarry had escaped the officers were just leaving the building when they literally ran into their target. Frisking him the PNP claimed that they had found an unlicensed 45 caliber pistol. I say "claims" because, aside from Jamiri swearing he was unarmed, the pistol is just too perfect a fit. In the Philippines a warrant is required before searching someone unless a crime is committed within the searching officers' presence. Having been led to Jamiri by three suspects who were being detained- at that point- without charges, the PNP needed a crime for which to detain Jamiri...enter a 45 caliber pistol, police issue no less (the same trick is pulled with suspected NPA who amazingly, always seem to be packing at least one hand grenade even while undergoing medical treatment, etc). Re-searching the premises they found paperwork leading to a grey Suzuki Shogun motorcycle with a garish blue polka dotted colour scheme. Impounding the motorcycle they took their new prisoner in, charging him of course for Possesion of an Illegal Firearm.
Having been taken, like the first three suspects, to IS-AFP, Jamiri was subjected to a range of physical torture, or so he would claim in a December 10th counter-affadavit. When they began applying electric current to his testicles Jamiri really had no choice but to reveal that the Batasang Pambansa Bombing had been one of three concrete plans to kill Congressman Akbar. Collectively known as Plans A, B, and C, the bombing had been "Plan B." Jamiri revealed that the Suzuki motorcycle the officers had just impounded had been employed in a previous attempt on Congressman Akbar's life, "Plan A." In that failed attempt, the Suzuki had had a three kilogram IED placed under its seat and been parked outside the entrance to a Quezon City "love motel," the Sulo Hotel. Akbar had regular weekly trysts there with one of his many local mistresses. However, on October 24th, and again on October 31st, Akbar had been spared because of more urgent appointments he couldn't miss.
Pressed to reveal more, Jamiri told investigators that the three kilogram IED had been disassembled and stored for possible use in "Plan C" should they fail with their November attempt at the Congressional complex. Investigators were told that on Malate's Leveriza Street, there was a four story building owned by fellow Basilan native Wilson Asanin, who allowed the group to store IED components within hiding places created on the building's first floor. Like many Philippine buildings with concrete floors, the centre of the room had a shallow trough in the floor, within which sat a large drain and a pipe leading into the city sewer system, a type of lowbrow comfort room, as Philippine bathrooms are known. Arriving at the building, the PNP removed a filing cabinet sitting atop the drain, then had an EOD (Explosives and Ordnance Detachment) gingerly remove the drain's metal grate and retrieve an aluminum powdered milk can tied to the grate by monofilament fishing line. Secreted inside the can, sealed with several layers of plastic held in place with a yellow rubber band, were more than two kilograms of the same unusual explosive mixture discovered by the American EOD team the night of the bombing. There was now no doubt that police had nabbed their man, even if they had to lie and cheat to do so.
The discovery of the multiple plots and explosives soon fell by the wayside as Jamiri kept right on talking. First, he told investigators that a police officer from Basilan had supplied the pre-prepared explosive, though to Jamiri's limited knowledge it had been purchased in Mindanao's Zamboanga City. In reality, the officer, Police Officer 1st Grade (PO1) Bayan Judda, had contracted with Abu Sayyaf to obtain the services of the now deceased Abu Jundal. Jundal had come to Manila simply to prepare the payload and to assemble two devices. More suprising was Jamiri's revelation vis a vis planning and funding of all three plans. According to Jamiri's ammended affadavit, the initial planning had began three months prior, in August of 2007. He would meet with the driving force behind the plan, former Congressman Gerry Salapuddin at Salapuddin's business, Green Bucks Grocers just outside Filinvest 2 Subdivision in Quezon City, the subdivision Salapuddin called home when in Metro Manila. Later, they would meet at the home of Salapuddin's partner, sitting Congressman, Mujiv Hataman.
While Salapuddin had served as the lone Congressman representing Basilan he had served side by side with Hataman, who although he too came from Basilan, served as a Party List legislator, representing ANAK Mindanao. Because the Philippines adopted a hybrid-system utilising both territorial AND party representatives, such interesting dynamics were not at all unusual. Salapuddin had been a popular Congressman, an ex-MNLF Commander who controlled all of Basilan until surrendering to the Marcos Regime in April of 1984. Content in recent years to relegate his partisanship towards strictly political pursuits, Salapuddin had reached his nine year term limit in Congress and so he was forced to abdicate his seat. He then set his sights on the Basilan gubernatorial race and began preparing for what he believed would be a simple campaign. As Salapuddin did so, Wahab Akbar prepared to step into Salapuddin's Congressional seat. He also had three of his four wives run for local office, with wife Jum Akbar running against Salapuddin in the gubernatorial race.
2007 was Wahab Akbar's year. Although one of his wives did end up losing a mayoral race, wife Cherrylynn Santos Akbar became mayor of the provincial capital, Isabela City, and Jum sailed right past Salapuddin and into the Governorship of Basilan. Salapuddin was livid.
Muviv Hataman's brother Hajiman "Jim" Hataman Salliman had raced against Wahab Akbar himself and of course had come out as a loser. Mindanowan politics being what it is, Congressman-elect Akbar was less than gracious towards Jim Hataman Salliman and once again, a powerful man had ended up enraged with Wahab Akbar.
Jamiri, like his three co-conspirators, was removed from IS-AFP custody and transferred to Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City. However, still only charged for the pistol, the sitting Judge, Ralp Lee of Regional Trial Court #83 in Quezon City, set a bail of P80,000 ($1,600). Posting it on December 4th, Jamiri walked out of Camp Bagong Diwa and immediately took out a counter-affadavit to negate the affadavit (and its ammendment) which he claimed had been coerced via torture. Notarised by an attorney outside the camp, he could have now rest assured that his original affadavit was history. However, not trusting the Philippine Justice System, he had his attorney file for a court hearing with Judge Lee. Within days of the notarisation the media learned that Jamiri had recanted.
Although the media had been told that the three suspects initially arrested:
1) Ikram Indama
2) Caidar Aunal
3) Akham Kusain
had been charged with four counts of Murder, ten counts of Frustrated Attempted Multiple Murder, and a single count of Destruction of Property by the Department of Justice on November 19th, the truth of the matter was that they had merely been charged with Obstruction of Justice vis a vis the "shootout" during their arrest- and then only on December 6th, some 17 days after having supposedly ben charged with Murder, etc. (though Philippine Jurisprudence dictates formal charges within 36 hours or else release them.
It was there that I closed the preceding entry and so it is here that I begin:
From the initial discovery of items linking Ikram Indama to ex-Congressman Abdulgani "Gerry" Salapuddin the authorities had been investigating Salapuddin's role, if any, in the Batasang Pambansa Bombing. However, while the authorities freely admitted having discovered that Ikram Indama had served as a Congressional Aide to Salapuddin, they had refused to even discuss any possible role Salapuddin may have played as they were continuously prodded to do so by the hyper-aggressive Philippine Media. Days after that November 15th arrest though, Akbar's niece, Tahira S.Ismael Sansawi, then serving as the Mayor of Lamitan City, Basilan's second largest population centre, publicly accused not only Gerry Salapuddin but then-Congressman Mujiv Hataman, serving for the ANAK Party List, and his brother Hadjiman "Jim" Hataman Saliman, who had run against Wahab Akbar for Basilan's lone Congressional seat and lost, that previous May. In fact, Gerry Salapuddin, who has been compelled to vacate that same Congressional seat for having reached his nine year term limit, had run against one of Akbar's four wives, Jum Akbar, and lost the province's gubernatorial race (also in May of 2007). Investigators certainly had no problem in so far as establishing a motive went.
As the media ran with Salapuddin and the two Hataman brothers as the alleged "brains" behind the bombing a fourth name popped up out of left field. A third Hataman, Benjamin, popularly known as "Mang," was linked to the case as the man who actually detonated the IED via a cellular phone, having been fingered in the follow up interrogation of the jailed suspects, Ikram Indama, Caidar Aunal, and Adham Kusain. Moreover, it was revealed that the lessor of the house where the arrest took place, Redwan Indama, who had been killed by the PNP in the initial entry to the premises, turned out to be a cousin of all three Hatamans, albeit a third cousin to brothers Mujiv and Jim, and an even more distant relation to Benjamin Hataman.
On December 5th, Hajarun Jamiri was allowed to post bail in the amount of P80,000 ($1,600), a phenomenal sum given that his only charge to date had been the weapons charge over the 45 caliber pistol the PNP claimed to have found him carrying when he was arrested in Malate. That day, as noted above in my recap of "Part 1," Jamiri had a counter affadavit notarised in which he retracted his November 20th affadavit which he alleges- as I noted- had been obtained through extreme physical torture. In addition he retracted an ammended affadavit taken days after that initial November 20th document. After notarisation his attorney secured a hearing with Quezon City's Regional Trial Court #83 (RTC 83), the court that ended up with the entire case. Judge Ralph Lee set the hearing for December 10th and in the short interim Jamiri's attorney went at the media full throttle. A day after Jamiri had his counter affadavit notarised, PNP Director General Raul Bacalzo admitted that Jamiri had "not wanted" to sign his original affadavit, and only did so after much prodding (though he should have said "cattle prodding") and even then he immediately demanded that he be allowed to retract the affadavit. Still, Director General Bacalzo denied that any torture had taken place.
On December 10th Jamiri was allowed to formally retract his original affadavit. While the notarisation had in fact already ensured retraction, Jamiri was anxious to have the retraction formally on court record so that there could be no legal maneuvering around it. As PNP Director General had observed during his denial of Jamiri's accusations of torture, without Jamiri's ammended notation there was no case against Salapuddin or the Hattaman brothers. In the complete absence of physical proof, only an affadavit linking the three men to the case would keep the case against the three in play.
As 2008 began the three man Preliminary Investigatory Panel created by the Departmen of Justice, or DOJ, began preparing its findings and word leaked out that the three Hatamans, PO1 Bayan Judda, and Gerry Salapuddin would soon be joining Indama, Aunal, and Kusain in a cell at Camp Bagong Diwa. However, just before the February 28th, 2008 release of their preliminary investigation, the DOJ cleared Mujiv and Jim Hataman of the allegations, citing a lack of sufficient evidence. At the same time the DOJ found Sufficient Probable Cause to move against the three detainees, Indama, Aunal, and Kusain, along with PO1 Judda, Benjamin Hataman, Salapuddin, and Hahjirun Jamiri, the former Mayor of Tuburan who had bailed out of Camp Bagong Diwa back on December 5th, 2011.
The immediate result was a Counter-Motion by Salapuddin's attorneys seeking a Judicial Determination of Probable Cause, in essence, Salapuddin was asking Judge Lee to review the findings of the DOJ and to either concur, or else find the DOJ had erred, in which case Salapuddin would be cleared. Judge Lee concurred with the DOJ and so Salapuddin remained under the proceedings.
On March 4th, 2008, Judge Lee arraigned the three detained suspects, Ikram Indama, Caidar Aunal, and Adham Kusain. However, the other defendants scheduled to appear: PO1 Judda, Benjamin Hataman, Hajarun Jamiri, and Gerry Salapudding didn't bother to show up. The four were issued warrants. As for the three men present, Indama, being groomed as a State Witness, entered a plea of "Not Guilty." Aunal and Kusain however refused to enter a plea and so the court entered both men Not Guilty.
On April 23rd, the DOJ issued a Resolution to exclude Salapuddin from the case after prosecuting attirneys noted that the only thing connecting Salapuddin to the case was Ikram Indama's affadavit, now that Hajarun Jamiri had retracted his back in December. Aside from Indama's suspect assertion, there was nothing with which to tie Salapuddin to the bombing, certainly not a shred of physical evidence. The very next day, one of Congressnan Akbar's four widows, Governor Jum Akbar, filed a Petition for Certiorari in the Court of Appeals, hoping to have the DOJ Resolution trashed, thereby getting Salapuddin re-added to the docket. On May 23rd Judge Lee opted to suspend the DOJ Resolution for 30 days, pending its ajudication as he awaited Court of Appeals action.
On July 18th, 2008, after the Court of Appeals had rejected Governor Akbar's Petition, Judge Lee finally filed a 6pp Ruling in which he dropped Salapuddin from the case. It been an incredibly difficult for the last nine months, Gerry Salapuddin finally could show his face withou fear of arrest and with the shame, but this reprieve would only last a shortwhile as we should see in my third and final part, to follow shortly.
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