SC exec: Suspect in Bar exams blast faces SC probe panel

(UPDATED 7:40 p.m.) A suspect in the post-Bar examinations explosion outside a Manila university campus faced on Monday the Supreme Court's committee investigating the incident. Supreme Court administrator and spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said law student Jed Carlo Lazaga was among the personalities invited by the eight-member committee, chaired by Associate Justice Martin Villarama Jr. "I understand the committee invited several witnesses. I know Jed Lazaga was invited, and I understand he agreed and he's supposed to be shedding light into the incident. I think, at the moment, he is being interviewed," Marquez told reporters on Monday afternoon. The media are restricted from covering the proceedings. Lazaga is a fourth year law student of the University of San Jose Recoletos Law School in Cebu province and a member of the Alpha Kappa Rho (Akrho) fraternity. He had earlier denied involvement in the grenade explosion. About 47 people, mostly well-wishers and law students, were injured on September 26 outside the De La Salle University campus along Taft Avenue in Manila. Mauled by rival fratmen In a one-page affidavit complaint submitted to the Manila Police District (MPD), Lazaga said he was in Manila as part of his school’s team supporting their graduates who were taking the Bar exams. "I was on my way to West Burgundy Tower in Vito Cruz to check the school’s service bus for our examinees when suddenly I was choked from behind by a member of the Tau Gamma Fraternity who was wearing an orange shirt and I was forcibly brought to their booth," said Lazaga. He added that members of the Tau Gamma fraternity mauled him to force him to admit he had any participation in the incident. He also accused the group of taking away his earrings and wallet that contained three ATM cards, P1,500 cash and other important documents. Earlier, Marquez said suspects in the violence may face charges ranging from physical injuries to frustrated murder. Witness faces panel An eyewitness, Ryan Ambrosio, also faced the panel and positively identified Lazaga as the person who threw the grenade, committee member Deputy Court Administrator Raul Villanueva said Monday evening. However, Villanueva said Ambrosio and Lazaga did not meet face to face during the proceedings. He said Ambrosio only identified Lazaga through the latter's identification card that was found in the crime scene. A certain Francis Yap also faced the panel to attest that he was a witness when Ambrosio executed his statement pointing to Lazaga as the suspect. "(Lazaga) disowned any involvement in the alleged bomb explosion and according to him, he was a victim of robbery and was mauled," Villanueva told reporters. Villanueva described Ambrosio as a hotel and management restaurant student who was eating at a fast-food joint with his friends near DLSU last Sept. 26. "Because of the festivities, they (Ambrosio's group) stayed for a while. They went to the center island and noticed a person wearing a cap and black T-shirt, and from the moment that he (Ambrosio) noticed the unusual movement, he focused his attention on that person until the time the explosion happened," said Villanueva. "Sabi ni Ambrosio nasa La Salle sila ng grupo niya dahil napag-tripan lang (Ambrosio said he and his friends were near La Salle because they just felt like it)," he added. He added that the committee is looking into the possibility that Ambrosio and Yap are members of fraternities. Even if they are fraternity members, however, Villanueva said, "We cannot just say and conclude that it [is because of a fraternity war]." P1-M bounty An anonymous business group has put up a P1-million bounty for any information leading to the identification and arrest of the suspects. The Fraternal Order of Utopia, a fraternity based in Ateneo Law School, has also offered a P200,000 reward for information about the incident. – VVP, GMANews.TV