SC affirms with finality conviction of 17 Abus

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed with finality the guilty verdict handed down by the Isabela City regional trial court on 17 Abu Sayyaf bandits for the kidnapping in June 2001 of Ediborah Yap and three other nurses of a government hospital in Lamitan, Basilan.

In a resolution, the SC’s special second division junked the motion for reconsideration of the accused and stood by its decision last June upholding the ruling of the Court of Appeals (CA) in November 2008 that affirmed the conviction of the terrorist group led by the late Khadaffy Janjalani and Abu Sabaya.

The ruling was promulgated last Aug. 31 but was only released yesterday.

The SC again held that the CA was correct in directing the convicted Abu Sayyaf bandits to pay P200,000 in moral damages to the family of Yap and fellow kidnap victims Shiela Tabuñag, Reina Malonzo and Joel Guillo, and an additional P150,000 in civil indemnity and exemplary damages to Yap’s heirs.

The SC acted on the case without any appeal of conviction from the Abu Sayyaf bandits and just by virtue of its authority to automatically review rulings of the appellate court.

The SC also junked the bid of four of the 17 convicts – Wahid Salcedo, Magarni Hapilon Iblong, Nadzmer Mandangan and Kamar Jaafar – for transfer of detention to a rehabilitation center for the youth since they were just minors when the crime was committed.

The group of Janjalani and Abu Sabaya seized the victims from the Dr. Jose Torres Memorial Hospital in Lamitan town where they were then working as on-duty nurses on June 1, 2001.

The bandits, who brought along with them the foreign hostages they previously snatched from a resort in Palawan, also occupied the nearby St. Peter’s Church and then escaped from government forces.

Four months later, Guillo was able to run away from their kidnappers while Tabuñag and Malonzo were released in separate occasions.

A year after the abduction, Yap was killed along with fellow hostage, American missionary Martin Burnham, in crossfire during a military rescue operation.

On Aug. 13, 2004, the Isabela City regional trial court found the 17 accused guilty beyond reasonable doubt of kidnapping and meted the death penalty on them. Four of the 17 accused – Toting Hano Jr., Jaid Awalal, Mubin Ibbah and one Annik/Rene Abbas – were convicted in absentia.

In its Nov. 24, 2008 decision, the CA junked the accused’s defense of alibi and denial. But it modified their death sentence to life imprisonment following the repeal of the death penalty law by Congress.