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.
Showing posts with label Wahab Akbar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wahab Akbar. Show all posts
Friday, November 25, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Political Developments for the Fourth Quarter of 2011, Part I: President Aquino's Masterplan for the ARMM Hits a Tiny Speedbump, Part 1
With all the time DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) Secretary Jessie Robredo has spent in Cotabato City these last 6 months one would expect he would be speaking with a Maguindanowan accent by now (or maybe organising his own Kidnap for Ransom gang like that city's Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema). Of course he has spent those long hot months, dodging bombing attempts and the annual torrential flooding from the Western Monsoon while doing his master's bidding. President Aquino needs Robredo to put on a big act as if he is actually considering names for the 26 OICs (Officers in Charge) that Aquino plans to appoint (one of these days) for his new and improved ARMM, or Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. The scam, I mean "idea," is to make it appear as if it is actually an objective and considerate process whereas in reality President Aquino had his list ready to go as far back as May 30th of this year. While some names may have been shuffled in the many months since May 30th, the appointee who gets to sit in the hotseat, as Governor, has been fixed to remain steadfast and true.
On May 30th, 2011, President Arroyo met with the Governors of all five constituent provinces within the ARMM:
1) Governor Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu of Manguindanao Province
2) Governor Mamintal Alonto Adiong Jr., of Lanao del Sur Province
3) Governor Sadikul "Dick" Adalla Sahali, of Tawi Tawi Province
4) Governor Abdusakur "Sakur" Tan, of Sulu Province
5) Governor Jum Jainuddin Akbar, of Basilan Province
along with:
1) Presidential Advisor on Political Affairs, Ronald Llamas,
2) the aforementioned Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government, Jessie Robredo,
3) the Director of MinDA, the Mindanao Development Authority, Director Luwalhati "Lou" Antonino,
and
4) both Presidential Spokespeople
A) Edwin Lacierda
B) Ricky Carandan
In that meeting President Aquino explained that he had first thought that he would simply appoint Ansaruddin "Hookie" Alonto Adiong, the current OIC Governor of the ARMM and brother of Lanao del Sur's Governor Adiong, to continue on as the appointed Governor until the newly re-scheduled elections took place in 2013. However, he continued, after much consideration he had become convinced that the best man for the job was ex-Congressman Mujiv Sabbihi Hataman. What he did not say in the meeting though, is that the real decision maker had been his Advisor, Ronald Llamas. In fact, if truth be told, it had been Llamas who had orchestrated the entire ARMM Election Delay boondogle. The issue is certainly deserving of an entry all its own and it will be a long one at that. For the sake of brevity I will simply relate that ostensibly the delay is so that the ARMM Election can be synchronised with the 2013 Midterm Elections. The ACTUAL reason though, is so that the President can appoint all twenty-six of the major positions within the ARMM Government, namely, the Governor, Vice Governor, and the twenty-four slots in the RLA, or Regional Legislative Assembly.
Hataman, on the surface, would seem to be a great choice. A Yakan Tribesman from the municipality of Sumisip on Mindanao's island province of Basilan, he was born with one foot in the stomach churning morass known as "Philippine Politics." His father, Haji Sulaiman Hataman served as the barangay chief of Barangay Buli-Buli for decades. His father before him, Panglima Hataman, ruled Buli Buli as its tribal chieftain and in his later years served as a municipal councilor when all of Basilan constituted a single town.
When Mujiv first arrived in Manila for university the nation had just thrown off the shackles of the Marcos dictatorship. It was a tumultuous time socially, culturally, and of course, politically as well. Hataman responded to his environment by involving himself in Filipino Muslim activism. In 1989 he joined the NGO, or as Filipinos usually refer to such entities, Civil Society Organization, BANGSA, or, the Bangsamoro Student Association. That involvement led to his dropping out of university in his sophmore year in order to accept a fulltime position at the NGO al Fatiha Foundation Incorporated. With al Fatiha Hataman worked as an unofficial social worker slash advocate for the teeming masses populating Metro Manila's growing Muslim slums. Populated by Mindanowans who had migrated north within the last 40 years Hataman easily fit in and it was through these initial forays that the young man found his life's calling, resolving to serve Filipino Muslims and to better their lot.
In 1992 Hataman returned home to Basilan where he continued in his activism, co-founding the NGO KAHAPAN, or, Kilusan para sa Hustisya at Kapayapa'an ng Basilan- The Union for Justice and Peace for Basilan). Through this work Hataman came into contact with Basilan politicians, including an ambitious MNLF cum Abu Sayyaf sub-Kumander who was seeking an avenue into national politics. This politician, Wahab Akbar- see my entry, "Portrait of a Warlord, Part I: Wahab Akbar"- challenged the former paramount MNLF Kumander on Basilan, Abdulgani "Gerry" Ajul Salapuddin in the 1995 Gubrenatorial Election. Although Salapuddin, a very well established politician at the time, managed to retain his grip upon the Governor's chair, his victory would be fleeting.
Akbar managed to bounce back and in the 1998 Election when Salipuddin was forced to vacate the Governor's seat having reached his mandatory term limit, Akbar finally won office. Salapuddin wasn't too broken up over losing that position however since he parlayed the influence gained into winning the Congressional race that same year. Akbar meanwhile saw to it that his sister won a chair as one of three representatives from Basilan elected to the ARMM RLA (legislature) in its next election, and likewise saw a brother became Mayor of Maluso, a key municipality on Basilan, Akbar showed that his plans extended beyond the Governorship. After three consecutive wins and therefore reaching his term limit Akbar set his sights on Basilan's lone Congressional seat. As is the case with most Mindanowan politicians at the provincial level or above, Akbar had no desire to vacate the Governor's seat even as he aimed to enter the national stage. Of his four wives he chose Jum, a fellow Yakan, as being the one best able to win and most likely to remain in his pocket, even as he positioned two other wives to gear up for the mayoralty campaign's over the province's two largest cities, Isabela and Lamitan.
So it was that in 2007 one of Akbar's four wives, Jum Jainuddin Akbar pushed Salapuddin out of office as she won election as Governor. A second wife, Cherrylyn Santos Akbar, won election as the Mayor of Isabela City, the provincial capital, and although a third wife, Nur-in Akbar ended up losing in her bid to become the Mayor of Lamitan City, Akbar himself won election as the island's lone Congressman, defeating Abdulgani "Gerry" Salapuddin, heretofore the island's pre-eminent politician. The election marked Wahab's formation of what was, at that point in time, Basilan's strongest political dynasty. His laundry list of vehement enemies weren't about to take that lying down. Indeed, all through that 2007 campaign Akbar's followers were duking it out with Salipuddin's supporters, and to a lesser extent, those of gubernatorial candidate Sulaiman "Jim" Hataman Saliman, brother of our man of the hour, Mujiv Hataman.
On November 13th, 2007, as Akbar walked out of the Batasang Pambansa's south wing and into its carpark, after a long day in session, an unoccupied Honda motorcycle suddenly detonated, an IED having been set in its gas tank. Killed instantly were (Batasang Pambansa being the Congressional Building):
1) Marcial Taldo, Driver for Congresswoman Luz Iligan, died instantly
2) Kimhar Indanan, Bodyguard for Akbar
In addition, were wounded, and among them was the target of the bombing, Congressman Wahab Akbar. Akbar and the other fourteen wounded victims:
1) Congresswoman Luzviminda "Luz" Iligan, a Party List representative for Gabriela, the Leftist slash Feminist party took shrapnel in the legs and back
2) Congressman Pryde Henry Teves, representing Negros Oriental Province in the Central Philippines. One of the most seriously wounded he beat the odds and returned to work on Janurary 18th, 2008, albeit in a whhelchair and specia pressurised clothing to retard scarring. Unfortunately his horrible injuries led him into an addiction to morphine though he claims to have wrestled the monkey off his back sometime in mid-2010.
3) Congressional Aide Ma'an Abustanillo, Chief of Staff for her cousin, Congressman Teves. Unfortunately, as she was being transferred from Malvar General Hospital to the much better equipped Saint Luke's Medical Centre she went into cardiac arrest. Quickly re-routed to the nearest hospital, Capitol Medical Center, it was too late and she was declared DOA, or Dead on Arrival
4) Congressional Aide Dennis Manila, staffer of Congressman Akbar, died during treatment later that evening
5) Congressional Aide, Julasiri Hayudini, staffer of Congressman Akbar, died during treatment
6) Congressional Aide, Vercita Garcia, staffer of Congressman Teves, went into cardiac arrest on December 17th, 2007 and died
7) Ismael Lim, Driver for Liza Masa, founder of Gabriel and like her partymate Luz Iligan, serving in Congress
8) Timar Kindanan
9) Perry Garcia
10) Rodolfo Relente
11) Frederick del Castillo
12) Allan Mangulabnan
13) Larry Noda
14) Nikki Ayudoni
and of course
15) Congressnan Wahab Akbar who survived until shortly after reaching the hospital
The final tally, including Akbar, was seven dead, and ten wounded.
After the PNP, or Philippine National Police, requested their expertise, the American Embassy deployed a forensic unit to give the premises a once over. Philippine authorities usually do not care and the precious few that do are terribly under-equipped and under-trained and so the deployment of the American team was incredibly important if the world had any chance of finding out what had actually transpired at the Batasan Pambansa. The detonation took place just after 8PM, and the Americans arrived on scene just before 1015PM, before the crime scene was contaminated too badly (contamination being a given in the Philippines). Their role only extended as far as an initial workup on the IED. Their findings showed that it bore the signature of ASG, shorthand for the Abu Sayyaf Group, in terms of overall device construction and placement. The payload though was highly unusual for the Philippines, let alone Abu Sayyaf, but that appeared to be more due to logistics than anything else.
The payload of choice on Mindanao, for Abu Sayyaf as well as for the MILF/BIAF and various offshoots that have formed into KFR (Kidnap for Ransom) slash extortion rings is good old Compound B. Compound B is the payload inside of mortar and howitzer shells. Basically, it is a simple TNT and RDX admixture (36:63 ratio, respectively). Mindanao being the most heavily militarised swatch of land in Southeast Asia going on four decades now is cursed with an over-abundance of UXO, or Un-exploded Ordnance. Finding mortar and artillery shells is nearly as easy as buying them directly from the AFP, and it is VERY easy to buy anything from a Military in which Junior Officers make less than 14,000 Pesos ($300) a month- but wait! I almost for got the P40 (80 US Cents) a day in Combat Pay!
Buying explosives very well may be simple but few are willing to move them north of Mindanao. Our fair isle of course, sits nearly 750 kilometers to the south of Quezon City and its Batasang Pambansa. While accessible by both sea and air commercial transportation of mortar and artillery shells- or their explosive payload- is never a smart idea. Blasting caps are simple to make but here in the Philippines one need only go to just about any fishing village to find them selling for P50 ($1.10) per cap since fishermen, destroying their own industry, often rely on low grade explosives to "Dynamite Fish." The concussion stuns fish which then float belly up to the surface where waiting fishermen then harvest them. Of course it absolutely trashes coral reefs but when you are a 30 year old man supporting eight children and 9 members of an extended family the ecosystem is one of your least worries (if indeed it enters your mind at all). Triggers are almost always Radio Frequency Command and in a nation literally ranked number one in cellphone usage what else would an aspiring bomber utilise but a cellphone? Charges are typically 9Volt batteries, all items easily had on Luzon, certainly within Metro Manila.
Payloads however, present moderate difficulties as noted but for the knowledgeable bomb maker it isn't even a challenging obstacle. The American team discovered a PETN signature. PETN, or Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate, is one of the most efficient military grade explosives on the market with a Relative Effectivebess Factor of 1.66. For the sake of brevity, that value signifies a substance's explosive power compared gramme for gramme with good old TNT. In other words, PETN only takes 0.6 kg to perform as well as 1kg of TNT. More importantly, militarily speaking, it is relatively stable both in terms of handling and in storage. While one hears a lot about terrorists favouring the substance because of its ability to pass basic security checks as well as its being extremely easy to manufacture, it is used militarily and indeed even commercially as well...even in common detonation cable. However, it isn't found in ASG or other domestic organisations.
Naturally the case led to a quick reaction on the part of the Philippine authorities, albeit as vaccuous as always. True to form arrests were quick but cases evaporated under the gross errors investigators committed as they tried to produce fast results with little thought given towards accuracy and/or sustainability. The first police operation took place just days after the bombing, on November 15th. Going down a list of individuals who had entered the southside carpark at the Congressional complex, two names:
1) Ikram Indama
2) Caidar Aunal
led to a single address not far from the complex, in Barangay Payatas' Violago Subdivision. The home rented by Redwan Indama and his wife Saing sat on a quiet residential street. While the PNP could have easily set up a cordon and tried to apprehend the two men peacefully, they instead stayed true to form and rushed in guns a'blazing and mowed down three "suspects.":
1) Redwan Indanan
2) Saing Indanan, Redwan's wife
3) Abu Jundal
The raid, by the PNP SAF, or Special Action Force, the PNP Special Operations element, also resulted in one officer being critically wounded by Friendly Fire:
Police Officer Third Grade (PO3) Roland Baucas
Three other suspects, including the two wanted men, were taken alive and unscathed:
1) Ikram Indama, then 35 years old
2) Caidar Aunal, then 41 years old
3) Adham Kusain, then 21 years old
Inside the home the arresting officers, members of the CIDG NCR-PRO (Criminal Investigations and Detection Group of the National Capital Region Police Region Group) did a thorough search and discovered a deed of sale for the Honda XRM motorcycle that had been used to conceal the IED at the Congressional complex. The deed listed a VIN, or Vehicle Identifacation Number (XRM 13- 066- 203339) that matched the VIN recovered from a piece of the motorcycle chassis recovered from the blast site. Also discovered was the Congressional Identification Badge which Ikram Indama had used to gain entrance for himself and Caidar Aunal aboard that same Honda XRM motorcycle. The badge designated Ikram as a Legislative Staff Assistant III to the Deputy Speaker for Mindanao, none other than Abdulgani "Gerry" Salapuddin, who had left office the previous May when his 9 year term limit expired. Also found were envelopes with Salapuddin's Congressional masthead. CIDG delivered the three men to the AFP's Fort Bonifacio in Metro Manila's Makati City. There they were held in the IS-AFP (AFP Intelligence Service) basement, a notorious torture chamber. Within hours all three had given up a co-conspirator:
1) Hajarun Jamiri
Jamiri was the former mayor of Tuburan, a municipality in Basilan, Wahab Akbar's home province and the home of the three previously arrested men as well. Taken without incident at a rental house in Malate he began babbling left and right as soon as the CIDG slipped the handcuffs on him. He led the arresting officers to a second motorcyle, a Suzuki Shogun. Moreover, he led the officers to a second rental home on Malate's Leveriza Street where they found a 3 kilogram IED. The motorcycle and IED were used on October 24th, outside the Sulo Hotel in Quezon City in a first attempt against Conressman Akbar but much to the conspirator's frustration Akbar had been a no show. Therefore the November 13th bombing at the Congressional complex had actually been the second attempt on Akbar's life.
Although the media was told that the four suspects taken into custody had been charged with Murder, Attempted Frustrated Murder, and Destruction of Property, in reality, they hadn't been charged with anything as investigators, with US assistance, attempted to unravel the whole sordid tale. The initial arrests in Barangay Payatas, and the gunshots that went with it, were solely based upon the information on who had entered the carpark that day, cross referenced with information about the home's occupants during a 24 hour surveillance. It turned out that one of the occupants, Abu Jundal, was an ASG, or Abu Sayyaf Group member, with a slew of open warrants for Kidnapping and related crimes, hence the "blazing" guns. Finally, on December 6th, the three arrestees from Barangay Payatas were charged with Obstruction of Justice for the CIDG shooting. The PNP claimed that it been Abu Jundal, the ASG member, who had opened fire first. As his co-conspirators the three men wore the Obstruction charge. The heavier charges would wait, as the PNP slowly untangled the story.
It IS true that there had been running firefights between Salapuddin's many armed supporters and those of then-Governor Akbar as both men ran for the island's lone Congressional seat but as sad as Mindanowan politics are, that is completely run of the mill in any Mindanowan gubernatorial election. The newsworthy subject would have been a major campaign where people hadn't been shot and blown up but that has yet to happen.
Then, it was discovered that one of the three suspects mowed down by the PNP in their first execution- I mean "arrest attempt," Redwan Indanan, was Mujiv Hataman and Jim Hatamn Saliman's cousin (paternal third cousin). However, the Yakan Tribe is rather small and like all other Islamicised Filipino tribes, polygamous, so that one can play connect the dots with Yakan families all day long without even raising more than the scantest circumstantial evidence. The entire province of Basilan barely has a population of 300,000 split between five ethnicities. It isn't hard then, to link one Yakan to another. A third cousin was not even worth noting.
Rather than make this an epically long post I will conclude this sordid tale in a "Part 2" post haste (pun kinda' intended).
On May 30th, 2011, President Arroyo met with the Governors of all five constituent provinces within the ARMM:
1) Governor Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu of Manguindanao Province
2) Governor Mamintal Alonto Adiong Jr., of Lanao del Sur Province
3) Governor Sadikul "Dick" Adalla Sahali, of Tawi Tawi Province
4) Governor Abdusakur "Sakur" Tan, of Sulu Province
5) Governor Jum Jainuddin Akbar, of Basilan Province
along with:
1) Presidential Advisor on Political Affairs, Ronald Llamas,
2) the aforementioned Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government, Jessie Robredo,
3) the Director of MinDA, the Mindanao Development Authority, Director Luwalhati "Lou" Antonino,
and
4) both Presidential Spokespeople
A) Edwin Lacierda
B) Ricky Carandan
In that meeting President Aquino explained that he had first thought that he would simply appoint Ansaruddin "Hookie" Alonto Adiong, the current OIC Governor of the ARMM and brother of Lanao del Sur's Governor Adiong, to continue on as the appointed Governor until the newly re-scheduled elections took place in 2013. However, he continued, after much consideration he had become convinced that the best man for the job was ex-Congressman Mujiv Sabbihi Hataman. What he did not say in the meeting though, is that the real decision maker had been his Advisor, Ronald Llamas. In fact, if truth be told, it had been Llamas who had orchestrated the entire ARMM Election Delay boondogle. The issue is certainly deserving of an entry all its own and it will be a long one at that. For the sake of brevity I will simply relate that ostensibly the delay is so that the ARMM Election can be synchronised with the 2013 Midterm Elections. The ACTUAL reason though, is so that the President can appoint all twenty-six of the major positions within the ARMM Government, namely, the Governor, Vice Governor, and the twenty-four slots in the RLA, or Regional Legislative Assembly.
Hataman, on the surface, would seem to be a great choice. A Yakan Tribesman from the municipality of Sumisip on Mindanao's island province of Basilan, he was born with one foot in the stomach churning morass known as "Philippine Politics." His father, Haji Sulaiman Hataman served as the barangay chief of Barangay Buli-Buli for decades. His father before him, Panglima Hataman, ruled Buli Buli as its tribal chieftain and in his later years served as a municipal councilor when all of Basilan constituted a single town.
When Mujiv first arrived in Manila for university the nation had just thrown off the shackles of the Marcos dictatorship. It was a tumultuous time socially, culturally, and of course, politically as well. Hataman responded to his environment by involving himself in Filipino Muslim activism. In 1989 he joined the NGO, or as Filipinos usually refer to such entities, Civil Society Organization, BANGSA, or, the Bangsamoro Student Association. That involvement led to his dropping out of university in his sophmore year in order to accept a fulltime position at the NGO al Fatiha Foundation Incorporated. With al Fatiha Hataman worked as an unofficial social worker slash advocate for the teeming masses populating Metro Manila's growing Muslim slums. Populated by Mindanowans who had migrated north within the last 40 years Hataman easily fit in and it was through these initial forays that the young man found his life's calling, resolving to serve Filipino Muslims and to better their lot.
In 1992 Hataman returned home to Basilan where he continued in his activism, co-founding the NGO KAHAPAN, or, Kilusan para sa Hustisya at Kapayapa'an ng Basilan- The Union for Justice and Peace for Basilan). Through this work Hataman came into contact with Basilan politicians, including an ambitious MNLF cum Abu Sayyaf sub-Kumander who was seeking an avenue into national politics. This politician, Wahab Akbar- see my entry, "Portrait of a Warlord, Part I: Wahab Akbar"- challenged the former paramount MNLF Kumander on Basilan, Abdulgani "Gerry" Ajul Salapuddin in the 1995 Gubrenatorial Election. Although Salapuddin, a very well established politician at the time, managed to retain his grip upon the Governor's chair, his victory would be fleeting.
Akbar managed to bounce back and in the 1998 Election when Salipuddin was forced to vacate the Governor's seat having reached his mandatory term limit, Akbar finally won office. Salapuddin wasn't too broken up over losing that position however since he parlayed the influence gained into winning the Congressional race that same year. Akbar meanwhile saw to it that his sister won a chair as one of three representatives from Basilan elected to the ARMM RLA (legislature) in its next election, and likewise saw a brother became Mayor of Maluso, a key municipality on Basilan, Akbar showed that his plans extended beyond the Governorship. After three consecutive wins and therefore reaching his term limit Akbar set his sights on Basilan's lone Congressional seat. As is the case with most Mindanowan politicians at the provincial level or above, Akbar had no desire to vacate the Governor's seat even as he aimed to enter the national stage. Of his four wives he chose Jum, a fellow Yakan, as being the one best able to win and most likely to remain in his pocket, even as he positioned two other wives to gear up for the mayoralty campaign's over the province's two largest cities, Isabela and Lamitan.
So it was that in 2007 one of Akbar's four wives, Jum Jainuddin Akbar pushed Salapuddin out of office as she won election as Governor. A second wife, Cherrylyn Santos Akbar, won election as the Mayor of Isabela City, the provincial capital, and although a third wife, Nur-in Akbar ended up losing in her bid to become the Mayor of Lamitan City, Akbar himself won election as the island's lone Congressman, defeating Abdulgani "Gerry" Salapuddin, heretofore the island's pre-eminent politician. The election marked Wahab's formation of what was, at that point in time, Basilan's strongest political dynasty. His laundry list of vehement enemies weren't about to take that lying down. Indeed, all through that 2007 campaign Akbar's followers were duking it out with Salipuddin's supporters, and to a lesser extent, those of gubernatorial candidate Sulaiman "Jim" Hataman Saliman, brother of our man of the hour, Mujiv Hataman.
On November 13th, 2007, as Akbar walked out of the Batasang Pambansa's south wing and into its carpark, after a long day in session, an unoccupied Honda motorcycle suddenly detonated, an IED having been set in its gas tank. Killed instantly were (Batasang Pambansa being the Congressional Building):
1) Marcial Taldo, Driver for Congresswoman Luz Iligan, died instantly
2) Kimhar Indanan, Bodyguard for Akbar
In addition, were wounded, and among them was the target of the bombing, Congressman Wahab Akbar. Akbar and the other fourteen wounded victims:
1) Congresswoman Luzviminda "Luz" Iligan, a Party List representative for Gabriela, the Leftist slash Feminist party took shrapnel in the legs and back
2) Congressman Pryde Henry Teves, representing Negros Oriental Province in the Central Philippines. One of the most seriously wounded he beat the odds and returned to work on Janurary 18th, 2008, albeit in a whhelchair and specia pressurised clothing to retard scarring. Unfortunately his horrible injuries led him into an addiction to morphine though he claims to have wrestled the monkey off his back sometime in mid-2010.
3) Congressional Aide Ma'an Abustanillo, Chief of Staff for her cousin, Congressman Teves. Unfortunately, as she was being transferred from Malvar General Hospital to the much better equipped Saint Luke's Medical Centre she went into cardiac arrest. Quickly re-routed to the nearest hospital, Capitol Medical Center, it was too late and she was declared DOA, or Dead on Arrival
4) Congressional Aide Dennis Manila, staffer of Congressman Akbar, died during treatment later that evening
5) Congressional Aide, Julasiri Hayudini, staffer of Congressman Akbar, died during treatment
6) Congressional Aide, Vercita Garcia, staffer of Congressman Teves, went into cardiac arrest on December 17th, 2007 and died
7) Ismael Lim, Driver for Liza Masa, founder of Gabriel and like her partymate Luz Iligan, serving in Congress
8) Timar Kindanan
9) Perry Garcia
10) Rodolfo Relente
11) Frederick del Castillo
12) Allan Mangulabnan
13) Larry Noda
14) Nikki Ayudoni
and of course
15) Congressnan Wahab Akbar who survived until shortly after reaching the hospital
The final tally, including Akbar, was seven dead, and ten wounded.
After the PNP, or Philippine National Police, requested their expertise, the American Embassy deployed a forensic unit to give the premises a once over. Philippine authorities usually do not care and the precious few that do are terribly under-equipped and under-trained and so the deployment of the American team was incredibly important if the world had any chance of finding out what had actually transpired at the Batasan Pambansa. The detonation took place just after 8PM, and the Americans arrived on scene just before 1015PM, before the crime scene was contaminated too badly (contamination being a given in the Philippines). Their role only extended as far as an initial workup on the IED. Their findings showed that it bore the signature of ASG, shorthand for the Abu Sayyaf Group, in terms of overall device construction and placement. The payload though was highly unusual for the Philippines, let alone Abu Sayyaf, but that appeared to be more due to logistics than anything else.
The payload of choice on Mindanao, for Abu Sayyaf as well as for the MILF/BIAF and various offshoots that have formed into KFR (Kidnap for Ransom) slash extortion rings is good old Compound B. Compound B is the payload inside of mortar and howitzer shells. Basically, it is a simple TNT and RDX admixture (36:63 ratio, respectively). Mindanao being the most heavily militarised swatch of land in Southeast Asia going on four decades now is cursed with an over-abundance of UXO, or Un-exploded Ordnance. Finding mortar and artillery shells is nearly as easy as buying them directly from the AFP, and it is VERY easy to buy anything from a Military in which Junior Officers make less than 14,000 Pesos ($300) a month- but wait! I almost for got the P40 (80 US Cents) a day in Combat Pay!
Buying explosives very well may be simple but few are willing to move them north of Mindanao. Our fair isle of course, sits nearly 750 kilometers to the south of Quezon City and its Batasang Pambansa. While accessible by both sea and air commercial transportation of mortar and artillery shells- or their explosive payload- is never a smart idea. Blasting caps are simple to make but here in the Philippines one need only go to just about any fishing village to find them selling for P50 ($1.10) per cap since fishermen, destroying their own industry, often rely on low grade explosives to "Dynamite Fish." The concussion stuns fish which then float belly up to the surface where waiting fishermen then harvest them. Of course it absolutely trashes coral reefs but when you are a 30 year old man supporting eight children and 9 members of an extended family the ecosystem is one of your least worries (if indeed it enters your mind at all). Triggers are almost always Radio Frequency Command and in a nation literally ranked number one in cellphone usage what else would an aspiring bomber utilise but a cellphone? Charges are typically 9Volt batteries, all items easily had on Luzon, certainly within Metro Manila.
Payloads however, present moderate difficulties as noted but for the knowledgeable bomb maker it isn't even a challenging obstacle. The American team discovered a PETN signature. PETN, or Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate, is one of the most efficient military grade explosives on the market with a Relative Effectivebess Factor of 1.66. For the sake of brevity, that value signifies a substance's explosive power compared gramme for gramme with good old TNT. In other words, PETN only takes 0.6 kg to perform as well as 1kg of TNT. More importantly, militarily speaking, it is relatively stable both in terms of handling and in storage. While one hears a lot about terrorists favouring the substance because of its ability to pass basic security checks as well as its being extremely easy to manufacture, it is used militarily and indeed even commercially as well...even in common detonation cable. However, it isn't found in ASG or other domestic organisations.
Naturally the case led to a quick reaction on the part of the Philippine authorities, albeit as vaccuous as always. True to form arrests were quick but cases evaporated under the gross errors investigators committed as they tried to produce fast results with little thought given towards accuracy and/or sustainability. The first police operation took place just days after the bombing, on November 15th. Going down a list of individuals who had entered the southside carpark at the Congressional complex, two names:
1) Ikram Indama
2) Caidar Aunal
led to a single address not far from the complex, in Barangay Payatas' Violago Subdivision. The home rented by Redwan Indama and his wife Saing sat on a quiet residential street. While the PNP could have easily set up a cordon and tried to apprehend the two men peacefully, they instead stayed true to form and rushed in guns a'blazing and mowed down three "suspects.":
1) Redwan Indanan
2) Saing Indanan, Redwan's wife
3) Abu Jundal
The raid, by the PNP SAF, or Special Action Force, the PNP Special Operations element, also resulted in one officer being critically wounded by Friendly Fire:
Police Officer Third Grade (PO3) Roland Baucas
Three other suspects, including the two wanted men, were taken alive and unscathed:
1) Ikram Indama, then 35 years old
2) Caidar Aunal, then 41 years old
3) Adham Kusain, then 21 years old
Inside the home the arresting officers, members of the CIDG NCR-PRO (Criminal Investigations and Detection Group of the National Capital Region Police Region Group) did a thorough search and discovered a deed of sale for the Honda XRM motorcycle that had been used to conceal the IED at the Congressional complex. The deed listed a VIN, or Vehicle Identifacation Number (XRM 13- 066- 203339) that matched the VIN recovered from a piece of the motorcycle chassis recovered from the blast site. Also discovered was the Congressional Identification Badge which Ikram Indama had used to gain entrance for himself and Caidar Aunal aboard that same Honda XRM motorcycle. The badge designated Ikram as a Legislative Staff Assistant III to the Deputy Speaker for Mindanao, none other than Abdulgani "Gerry" Salapuddin, who had left office the previous May when his 9 year term limit expired. Also found were envelopes with Salapuddin's Congressional masthead. CIDG delivered the three men to the AFP's Fort Bonifacio in Metro Manila's Makati City. There they were held in the IS-AFP (AFP Intelligence Service) basement, a notorious torture chamber. Within hours all three had given up a co-conspirator:
1) Hajarun Jamiri
Jamiri was the former mayor of Tuburan, a municipality in Basilan, Wahab Akbar's home province and the home of the three previously arrested men as well. Taken without incident at a rental house in Malate he began babbling left and right as soon as the CIDG slipped the handcuffs on him. He led the arresting officers to a second motorcyle, a Suzuki Shogun. Moreover, he led the officers to a second rental home on Malate's Leveriza Street where they found a 3 kilogram IED. The motorcycle and IED were used on October 24th, outside the Sulo Hotel in Quezon City in a first attempt against Conressman Akbar but much to the conspirator's frustration Akbar had been a no show. Therefore the November 13th bombing at the Congressional complex had actually been the second attempt on Akbar's life.
Although the media was told that the four suspects taken into custody had been charged with Murder, Attempted Frustrated Murder, and Destruction of Property, in reality, they hadn't been charged with anything as investigators, with US assistance, attempted to unravel the whole sordid tale. The initial arrests in Barangay Payatas, and the gunshots that went with it, were solely based upon the information on who had entered the carpark that day, cross referenced with information about the home's occupants during a 24 hour surveillance. It turned out that one of the occupants, Abu Jundal, was an ASG, or Abu Sayyaf Group member, with a slew of open warrants for Kidnapping and related crimes, hence the "blazing" guns. Finally, on December 6th, the three arrestees from Barangay Payatas were charged with Obstruction of Justice for the CIDG shooting. The PNP claimed that it been Abu Jundal, the ASG member, who had opened fire first. As his co-conspirators the three men wore the Obstruction charge. The heavier charges would wait, as the PNP slowly untangled the story.
It IS true that there had been running firefights between Salapuddin's many armed supporters and those of then-Governor Akbar as both men ran for the island's lone Congressional seat but as sad as Mindanowan politics are, that is completely run of the mill in any Mindanowan gubernatorial election. The newsworthy subject would have been a major campaign where people hadn't been shot and blown up but that has yet to happen.
Then, it was discovered that one of the three suspects mowed down by the PNP in their first execution- I mean "arrest attempt," Redwan Indanan, was Mujiv Hataman and Jim Hatamn Saliman's cousin (paternal third cousin). However, the Yakan Tribe is rather small and like all other Islamicised Filipino tribes, polygamous, so that one can play connect the dots with Yakan families all day long without even raising more than the scantest circumstantial evidence. The entire province of Basilan barely has a population of 300,000 split between five ethnicities. It isn't hard then, to link one Yakan to another. A third cousin was not even worth noting.
Rather than make this an epically long post I will conclude this sordid tale in a "Part 2" post haste (pun kinda' intended).
Friday, July 15, 2011
Political Developments, First Quarter of 2011, Part V: Arbison vs. Tan, Basilan Special Election, and Lagbas' Bodyguards Gone Wild
Former Congressman Munir Arbison, who represented the Second District of Sulu, took another potshot at his arch nemesis, Sulu's Governor Abdusakur "Sakur" Mahail Tan when he filed yet another petition with the Ombudsman on January 27th, 2011. In the Philippine system of governance the Ombudsman functions in the capacity of a prosecutor in a specialised court system. Known as the Sandiganbayan, or "Guardian of the People," the court functions on par with the Court of Appeals so that any appeal within the special court automatically finds itself elevated to the Supreme Court. Ergo, any petition to the Ombudsman is in effect the filing of a criminal charge.
The complaint in this case involves two APCs, or Armored Personnel Carriers. The two MX-8 Barakos, by the Philippine-based Steelcraft Military Land Defense Vehicles Corporation entered Governor Tan's life after he survived two serious assassination attempts within the previous twenty months, both involving massive IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (as in "bombs"). To protect himself the Governor obtained two of the recently developed APCs. On par with the V150 Simbas currently in use by the Philippine Military, in terms of armored capability, they resemble US-made Hummers with a bulky turret atop the roof that packs a 50 caliber gun. According to Tan they were a "present" from his daughter after the failed first attempt, a bombing against his motorcade in Patikul, on Jolo Island, or at least that was his final story.
At the time of Tan's acquisition Arbison was still sitting in Congress but facing the end of his term limit he had also jumped into the race for Governor. Pitted head to head against his former protoge, Arbison suffered a humiliating defeat in the May of 2010 balloting. He then decided to vent his pent up aggression against Governor Tan and continue a vindictive campaign that began with a flurry of letters to people higher up the foodchain. Most notably perhaps, he wrote to then Director General of Logistics for the Philippine National Police, Luizo Ticman, seeking verification of a PNP, or Philippine National Police, purchase order for the APCs, as is required by Philippine Law. The law is an attempt to check the formation of paramilitaries though in reality it is quite easy to circumvent the stricture.
In his letter to Ticman, dated February 15th, 2010 then Congressman Arbison complained that the purchase(s) were illegal, and requested any and all PNP paperwork related to the vehicles. General Ticman never replied and instead the letter made its way to General Victor Ibrado of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, or AFP. Ibrado already had received a similar letter from Arbison dated January 4th, 2010 but hadn't considered involving himself in the petty feuds that dominate the Philippine political landscape. Ibrado had in fact had an intimediary broach the subject with Governor Tan, banking a favor by warning him that Arbison was on the warpath.
In turn, Tan had the two APCs "donated" to the Sulu Provincial Government, for dedicated use by the Governor, though the papers said otherwise and dated the transaction January 14th, 2010 so that Arbison's "inquiries" to the PNP turned out to be "after the fact." Now badly frustrated, Arbison finally turned to the Ombudsman, bypassing the pre-requisite of "evidence" and going directly for the jugular. In his complaint to the Ombudsman Arbison cited four reasons for his petition:
1) Civilians, including Elected Officials are not allowed to purchase military hardware for personal use
2) Provincial funds were used to purchase the APCs
3) The MX-8's 50 caliber guns are for Tan's own personal use, another misuse of military hardware since 50 caliber rifles are illegal as personal weaponry
4) Tan uses the vehicles to intimidate the public, creating fear wherever he goes
The Ombudsman's routine correspondence with the PNP over the matter resulted in the Director of Sulu's PPO, or Police Provincial Office, Senior Superintendent Joseph Tabago Remac composing a routine report on the two vehicle's chain of paperwork. Ramac's findings cleared Tan though in the end it may have created more problems in manufacturing an entirely fictitious pedigree for the transaction. According to Sr. Supt. Ramac, one of the various self-appointed Sultans of Sulu, Akidjal Ingkang Attih, donated both APCs to Ramac's predecessor, the late Sr. Supt. Julasrim Ahadin Kassim who very soon after was killed in an ambush by the ASG, or the Abu Sayyaf Group. The donation mandated that the vehicles only be used by the PPO in the engagement of official duties. Interestingly, Ramac took the time to note that the 50 caliber guns were the property of the PNP. Seeing as how the APCs were already declared as such it seems superfluous to make that point. Of course the truth of the matter is that this was stated to cover Governor Tan's absolutely illegal acquisition of those two rifles, in case he was cleared with regard to the APCs themselves with the rifles handled as a separate issue.
Arbison's long time ally, Provincial Councilor Alganarham Adam noted that the Sultan, who is anything but wealthy, could not have donated anything to Sr. Supt. Kassim since Kassim was long dead and buried by January 14th, 2010, the official date on the paperwork covering the PNP's receipt of the APCs. Moreover, Tan was listed as the donor and the Sultan's name was nowhere to be found.
To date, in that I am composing this entry in the Third Quarter of 2011, the case has fallen by the wayside after the massive shakeup at the Ombudsman's Office in the wake of the Major General Carlos F.Garcia Scandal and its ever widening implications for the AFP and the Government in general.
On March 11th, 2011 a bodyguard for the Lagbas Clan was shot to death by a security guard after trying to divest another security guard of his weapon after first smashing him in the face. 35 year old Edwin O.Paler and his brother Francis O.Paler of Sitio Zone #8 in Cagayan del Oro City's Barangay Carmen rode tandem on a Honda XRM motorcyle to the Oro Homes Furnishing Canter on Kauswagan National Hiway, also in Cagayan del Oro City, in Misamis Oriental Province. As the two brothers rushed a sleeping security guard, 29 year old Sem Vismanos, breaking his arm with a brick, a second security guard, 21 year old Rogelio Tangcay working at a private residence next door rushed to fight off the attackers. The Paler brothers had already robbed Vismanos of his 38 caliber revolver.
The second security guard, Tangcay, was able to rush to his comrade's aid and quickly fired off three rounds from his 45 caliber pistol. Of the three bullets, two met their mark striking Edwin in the elbow and chest, killing him almost immediately. Before escaping on the motorcycle though, Francis was able to stab Dangcay five times in the back. Tangcay, employed by Rober Eagle Security Agency, and Vismanos, employed by Sagittarius Security Agency, were then transported to an area hospital for treatment. Vismanos admits he was sleeping on duty but defends his laxity by saying that he had had a toothache. Cagayan del Oro City CPO (City Police Office) personnel were able to quickly locate Francis O.Paler by simply following the address listed on Edwin's identification and captured both him and Vismanos' stolen revolver. Both brothers are ex-AFP soldiers who had been discharged for various transgressions making them the prototypical "bodyguards" on Mindanao.
On March 12th, 2011 the municipality of Sumisip in Basilan Province held a special election for Mayor that quickly evolved into open warfare between supporters of candidate Haber Asarul (Lakas-KAMPI-CMD) and Gulam "Boy" Salliman Hataman (Liberal) at Sapah Langay Elementary School in the town's Barangay Lower Cabengbeng. The school was housing five clustered precincts, more for security reasons than anything else, with a mere 927 potential voters able to cast ballots. In the original election, held on May 10th, 2011, Arasul had emerged victorious only to have his rival, Hataman, successfully contest that victory with COMELEC, the national electoral authority. COMELEC then nullified the election result in October of 2010, citing statistical improbability as the main raison d'etre; Barangay Cabengbeng proper tallied all of its 874 votes in favor of Arasul, despite that being the barangay where Hataman himself voted, not to mention his family to boot.
The special election retained the tallies from the original election in all but the five precincts, all located in that same barangay of Cabengbeng proper. This time Hataman scored 202 votes, bringing his overall tally to 8,393 votes versus 8,182 for Arasul, despite the latter candidate tallying 363 votes in the special election. Notably, only 581 of the 927 registered voters in those 5 precincts (16 of the votes cast were disqualified for various reasons) even bothered to vote.
After Hataman was declared the winner Arasul's gunmen attacked Hataman's friends and family, sparking an intense firefight. Luckily a brigade strength (1,500 men) composite force of PNP/AFP (Philippine National Police/Armed Forces of the Philippines) was on site though after the composite force intervened both Hataman and Arasul's men turned on the PNP/AFP, before finally withdrawing to their respective sections of the municipality. The Arasul/Hataman feud is a long running and very violent dispute. Hataman had succeeded his brother Hadjiman "Jim" Salliman Hataman as Mayor of Sumisip in 2004. In 2007 though, Arasul wrested control of the town. As Hataman set his sights on re-claiming the Mayoralty in the May of 2010 Election both camps began attacking one another.
Hataman's brother Jim, now the Congressman for the Lone District of Basilan, along with another brother, ANAK Mindanao Partylist Congressman Mujiv Salliman Hataman are the men behind the spectacular IED that killed Jim's predecessor, former-Governor Wahab Akbar, whom I discussed in my entry "Portrait of a Warlord, Part I: Wahab Akbar." The Hataman Clan, along with politician and former BMA, or Bangsamoro Army (the military wing of the MNLF) Commanding Officer for Basilan, Abdulgani "Gerry" A. Salapuddin and allied politicians had the assassination take place in the Batasang Pambasa, or Congressional Building, in Metro Manila's Quezon City. The 2007 bombing left the Lone District seat open after Jim Hataman filed a petition with Congress to bar any interim appointments. In 2010 he easily slid into the seat after forming tacit alliances with Akbar's two wives, current Governor Jum Akbar and Mayor of Isabela City, Cherry Santiago Akbar.
Arasul is himself brother to Nasser Arasul, a legislator in the ARMM, or Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. Just three weeks after this Special Election in Sumisip, Nasser's 7 year old son Amir Nasser Arasul would be kidnapped while walking in his Isabela City neighborhood. The reason? Haber Arasul, the unsuccessful candidate in that Special Election, had failed to re-pay a P300,000 ($6,500) loan floated by Ronnie Keseng of Tuburan, who chairs that municipality's Association of Barangay Chairman, or ABC. The boy was released after two and a half days when the Director of the Police Provincial Office of Basilan, Senior Superintendent Abubakar Tulawie escorted Nasser Arasul to Tuburan where Tulawie and Vice Mayor of Tuburan, Durie Kalahal successfully negotiated a loan re-payment, plus interest (despite Islam forbidding interest), plus a 10% commission for the Director, another for Vice Mayor Kalahal, and an additional gratuity for young Amir's "room and board" as it is euphamistically known here in the Southern Philippines.
After Boy Hataman won that Special Election in Sumisip his first course of action was to file for an audit of the municipality's finances. It seems that just before that new election the town had received its IRA, or Internal Revenue Alottment, of P3 Million ($63,000). Co-incidentally that sum then vanished, having been withdrawn from the town's bank account. Considering how Haber Arasul defaulted on that P300,000 loan from Ronnie Keseng that isn't entirely shocking.
The complaint in this case involves two APCs, or Armored Personnel Carriers. The two MX-8 Barakos, by the Philippine-based Steelcraft Military Land Defense Vehicles Corporation entered Governor Tan's life after he survived two serious assassination attempts within the previous twenty months, both involving massive IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (as in "bombs"). To protect himself the Governor obtained two of the recently developed APCs. On par with the V150 Simbas currently in use by the Philippine Military, in terms of armored capability, they resemble US-made Hummers with a bulky turret atop the roof that packs a 50 caliber gun. According to Tan they were a "present" from his daughter after the failed first attempt, a bombing against his motorcade in Patikul, on Jolo Island, or at least that was his final story.
At the time of Tan's acquisition Arbison was still sitting in Congress but facing the end of his term limit he had also jumped into the race for Governor. Pitted head to head against his former protoge, Arbison suffered a humiliating defeat in the May of 2010 balloting. He then decided to vent his pent up aggression against Governor Tan and continue a vindictive campaign that began with a flurry of letters to people higher up the foodchain. Most notably perhaps, he wrote to then Director General of Logistics for the Philippine National Police, Luizo Ticman, seeking verification of a PNP, or Philippine National Police, purchase order for the APCs, as is required by Philippine Law. The law is an attempt to check the formation of paramilitaries though in reality it is quite easy to circumvent the stricture.
In his letter to Ticman, dated February 15th, 2010 then Congressman Arbison complained that the purchase(s) were illegal, and requested any and all PNP paperwork related to the vehicles. General Ticman never replied and instead the letter made its way to General Victor Ibrado of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, or AFP. Ibrado already had received a similar letter from Arbison dated January 4th, 2010 but hadn't considered involving himself in the petty feuds that dominate the Philippine political landscape. Ibrado had in fact had an intimediary broach the subject with Governor Tan, banking a favor by warning him that Arbison was on the warpath.
In turn, Tan had the two APCs "donated" to the Sulu Provincial Government, for dedicated use by the Governor, though the papers said otherwise and dated the transaction January 14th, 2010 so that Arbison's "inquiries" to the PNP turned out to be "after the fact." Now badly frustrated, Arbison finally turned to the Ombudsman, bypassing the pre-requisite of "evidence" and going directly for the jugular. In his complaint to the Ombudsman Arbison cited four reasons for his petition:
1) Civilians, including Elected Officials are not allowed to purchase military hardware for personal use
2) Provincial funds were used to purchase the APCs
3) The MX-8's 50 caliber guns are for Tan's own personal use, another misuse of military hardware since 50 caliber rifles are illegal as personal weaponry
4) Tan uses the vehicles to intimidate the public, creating fear wherever he goes
The Ombudsman's routine correspondence with the PNP over the matter resulted in the Director of Sulu's PPO, or Police Provincial Office, Senior Superintendent Joseph Tabago Remac composing a routine report on the two vehicle's chain of paperwork. Ramac's findings cleared Tan though in the end it may have created more problems in manufacturing an entirely fictitious pedigree for the transaction. According to Sr. Supt. Ramac, one of the various self-appointed Sultans of Sulu, Akidjal Ingkang Attih, donated both APCs to Ramac's predecessor, the late Sr. Supt. Julasrim Ahadin Kassim who very soon after was killed in an ambush by the ASG, or the Abu Sayyaf Group. The donation mandated that the vehicles only be used by the PPO in the engagement of official duties. Interestingly, Ramac took the time to note that the 50 caliber guns were the property of the PNP. Seeing as how the APCs were already declared as such it seems superfluous to make that point. Of course the truth of the matter is that this was stated to cover Governor Tan's absolutely illegal acquisition of those two rifles, in case he was cleared with regard to the APCs themselves with the rifles handled as a separate issue.
Arbison's long time ally, Provincial Councilor Alganarham Adam noted that the Sultan, who is anything but wealthy, could not have donated anything to Sr. Supt. Kassim since Kassim was long dead and buried by January 14th, 2010, the official date on the paperwork covering the PNP's receipt of the APCs. Moreover, Tan was listed as the donor and the Sultan's name was nowhere to be found.
To date, in that I am composing this entry in the Third Quarter of 2011, the case has fallen by the wayside after the massive shakeup at the Ombudsman's Office in the wake of the Major General Carlos F.Garcia Scandal and its ever widening implications for the AFP and the Government in general.
On March 11th, 2011 a bodyguard for the Lagbas Clan was shot to death by a security guard after trying to divest another security guard of his weapon after first smashing him in the face. 35 year old Edwin O.Paler and his brother Francis O.Paler of Sitio Zone #8 in Cagayan del Oro City's Barangay Carmen rode tandem on a Honda XRM motorcyle to the Oro Homes Furnishing Canter on Kauswagan National Hiway, also in Cagayan del Oro City, in Misamis Oriental Province. As the two brothers rushed a sleeping security guard, 29 year old Sem Vismanos, breaking his arm with a brick, a second security guard, 21 year old Rogelio Tangcay working at a private residence next door rushed to fight off the attackers. The Paler brothers had already robbed Vismanos of his 38 caliber revolver.
The second security guard, Tangcay, was able to rush to his comrade's aid and quickly fired off three rounds from his 45 caliber pistol. Of the three bullets, two met their mark striking Edwin in the elbow and chest, killing him almost immediately. Before escaping on the motorcycle though, Francis was able to stab Dangcay five times in the back. Tangcay, employed by Rober Eagle Security Agency, and Vismanos, employed by Sagittarius Security Agency, were then transported to an area hospital for treatment. Vismanos admits he was sleeping on duty but defends his laxity by saying that he had had a toothache. Cagayan del Oro City CPO (City Police Office) personnel were able to quickly locate Francis O.Paler by simply following the address listed on Edwin's identification and captured both him and Vismanos' stolen revolver. Both brothers are ex-AFP soldiers who had been discharged for various transgressions making them the prototypical "bodyguards" on Mindanao.
On March 12th, 2011 the municipality of Sumisip in Basilan Province held a special election for Mayor that quickly evolved into open warfare between supporters of candidate Haber Asarul (Lakas-KAMPI-CMD) and Gulam "Boy" Salliman Hataman (Liberal) at Sapah Langay Elementary School in the town's Barangay Lower Cabengbeng. The school was housing five clustered precincts, more for security reasons than anything else, with a mere 927 potential voters able to cast ballots. In the original election, held on May 10th, 2011, Arasul had emerged victorious only to have his rival, Hataman, successfully contest that victory with COMELEC, the national electoral authority. COMELEC then nullified the election result in October of 2010, citing statistical improbability as the main raison d'etre; Barangay Cabengbeng proper tallied all of its 874 votes in favor of Arasul, despite that being the barangay where Hataman himself voted, not to mention his family to boot.
The special election retained the tallies from the original election in all but the five precincts, all located in that same barangay of Cabengbeng proper. This time Hataman scored 202 votes, bringing his overall tally to 8,393 votes versus 8,182 for Arasul, despite the latter candidate tallying 363 votes in the special election. Notably, only 581 of the 927 registered voters in those 5 precincts (16 of the votes cast were disqualified for various reasons) even bothered to vote.
After Hataman was declared the winner Arasul's gunmen attacked Hataman's friends and family, sparking an intense firefight. Luckily a brigade strength (1,500 men) composite force of PNP/AFP (Philippine National Police/Armed Forces of the Philippines) was on site though after the composite force intervened both Hataman and Arasul's men turned on the PNP/AFP, before finally withdrawing to their respective sections of the municipality. The Arasul/Hataman feud is a long running and very violent dispute. Hataman had succeeded his brother Hadjiman "Jim" Salliman Hataman as Mayor of Sumisip in 2004. In 2007 though, Arasul wrested control of the town. As Hataman set his sights on re-claiming the Mayoralty in the May of 2010 Election both camps began attacking one another.
Hataman's brother Jim, now the Congressman for the Lone District of Basilan, along with another brother, ANAK Mindanao Partylist Congressman Mujiv Salliman Hataman are the men behind the spectacular IED that killed Jim's predecessor, former-Governor Wahab Akbar, whom I discussed in my entry "Portrait of a Warlord, Part I: Wahab Akbar." The Hataman Clan, along with politician and former BMA, or Bangsamoro Army (the military wing of the MNLF) Commanding Officer for Basilan, Abdulgani "Gerry" A. Salapuddin and allied politicians had the assassination take place in the Batasang Pambasa, or Congressional Building, in Metro Manila's Quezon City. The 2007 bombing left the Lone District seat open after Jim Hataman filed a petition with Congress to bar any interim appointments. In 2010 he easily slid into the seat after forming tacit alliances with Akbar's two wives, current Governor Jum Akbar and Mayor of Isabela City, Cherry Santiago Akbar.
Arasul is himself brother to Nasser Arasul, a legislator in the ARMM, or Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. Just three weeks after this Special Election in Sumisip, Nasser's 7 year old son Amir Nasser Arasul would be kidnapped while walking in his Isabela City neighborhood. The reason? Haber Arasul, the unsuccessful candidate in that Special Election, had failed to re-pay a P300,000 ($6,500) loan floated by Ronnie Keseng of Tuburan, who chairs that municipality's Association of Barangay Chairman, or ABC. The boy was released after two and a half days when the Director of the Police Provincial Office of Basilan, Senior Superintendent Abubakar Tulawie escorted Nasser Arasul to Tuburan where Tulawie and Vice Mayor of Tuburan, Durie Kalahal successfully negotiated a loan re-payment, plus interest (despite Islam forbidding interest), plus a 10% commission for the Director, another for Vice Mayor Kalahal, and an additional gratuity for young Amir's "room and board" as it is euphamistically known here in the Southern Philippines.
After Boy Hataman won that Special Election in Sumisip his first course of action was to file for an audit of the municipality's finances. It seems that just before that new election the town had received its IRA, or Internal Revenue Alottment, of P3 Million ($63,000). Co-incidentally that sum then vanished, having been withdrawn from the town's bank account. Considering how Haber Arasul defaulted on that P300,000 loan from Ronnie Keseng that isn't entirely shocking.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Kidnap for the First Quarter of 2011: Maria Chris "Maricris" Quatrocruz
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