Salapuddin, Hataman charged
The police filed criminal charges against former Basilan congressman Gerry Salapuddin, party-list Rep. Mujiv Hataman of Anak Mindanao, his brother Jim Hataman, and a Basilan-based policeman for their alleged involvement in the bombing that killed a congressman and three others at the House of Representatives in Quezon City last Nov. 13.
The police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said Salapuddin and the Hataman brothers were charged as “principals by inducement” while Police Office 1 Bayan Judda of the Basilan police force was accused of providing the bomb used in the attack that killed Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar and congressional aides
Marcial Taldo, Maan Bustaliño and Julasari Hayudini.
The blast at the south wing lobby of the Batasang Pambansa complex also injured several people, including Negros Oriental Rep. Henry Teves and party-list Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan of Gabriela.
The CIDG–National Capital Region said that Salappudin and the Hatamans were charged as “principal by inducement” for the four counts of murder and several counts of frustrated murder filed at the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Police defined “principal by inducement” as a person who does not take a direct part in the execution of a crime, but induced or forced another to commit it.
The charges against Salapuddin, the Hatamans and Judda were based on the testimonies of arrested suspects Ikram Indama and former mayor Harijun Jamiri of Tuburan, Basilan, who were earlier charged with murder and frustrated murder along with two other arrested suspects, Kahidar Awnal and Adham Kusain.
Police and military agents arrested Indama, Awnal and Kusain during a raid at the suspects’ safehouse at Violago Homes in Payatas,
During the same raid, Redwan Idaman, his wife Saing and bomb expert Abu Jandal were killed after a shootout with members of the raiding team.
Police nabbed Jamiri last Nov. 20 in San Andres,
Another suspect who is still at large, Benjamin “Jang” Hataman, cousin of Rep. Hataman, was also charged with murder for allegedly detonating with a cellular telephone the bomb that was hidden in a motorcycle parked near the south wing lobby.
State Prosecutor Peter Ong, head of the prosecution panel that handled the preliminary investigation yesterday at the DOJ in
Meanwhile, in yesterday’s preliminary investigation proceeding, three of the suspects refused to affirm their earlier statements that were supposedly executed in the presence of a lawyer of their choice and alleged that the statements were in fact involuntarily executed.
Those who refused to affirm their affidavits were former Tuburan mayor Jamiri, Indama and Awnal.
When asked by Ong, Jamiri said he chose Eduardo Aribas as his counsel and not lawyer Confesor Sansano, who was present when he executed his affidavit.
Aribas also asked Ong that Jamiri be transferred from the CIDG jail in
Ong, however, said that he cannot entertain such a request as the DOJ is not the proper venue for it.
“The proper venue is the court. This is not the proper venue for it,” Ong said.
Sansano, Jamiri’s legal counsel, earlier told The STAR that Jamiri had identified the Hatamans as the persons who gave him P5,000 as an initial payment for the assassination of Akbar.
“Jamiri said that the Hatamans promised to give him additional P50,000 after the assassination,” said Sansano, who noted the former mayor failed to get the additional payment after he backed out from the plan to bomb the Sulo Hotel in Quezon City last Oct. 23. Akbar was a frequent guest at the hotel.
Sansano said Jamiri admitted to him that he was bothered by his conscience because he knew a number of people would be killed or hurt if he would pursue the plan.
According to Sansano, Jamiri met the Hataman brothers at the Ever Gotesco in
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