The Supreme Court has affirmed the Court of Appeals' conviction of 17 Abu Sayyaf men behind the kidnapping of hospital workers in Basilan province a decade ago. In a 14-page decision written by Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta, the SC's Second Division said the defense by the accused was insufficient to prove their innocence in the kidnapping of nurses Ediborah Yap, Shiela Tabunag, Reina Malonzo, and hospital accountant Joel Guillo in June 2001 at the Jose Maria Torres Memorial Hospital in Lamitan, Basilan. "Accused-appellants proferred defense are sorely wanting when pitted against the prosecution's evidence. It is established jurisprudence that denial and alibi cannot prevail over the witnesses' positive identification of the accused-appellants," said the court's decision promulgated last June 22. "More so where, as in the present case, the accused-appellants, failed to present convincing evidence that it was physically impossible for them to have been present at the crime scene at the time of the commission," the high court added. The high court likewise upheld the life imprisonment meted out on the accused. These are:
Urban Salcedo alias Wahid Guillermo Salcedo, Abdurahman Ismael Diolagla alias Abu Sahrin, Abdulajid Ngaya alias Abu Ajid, Haber Asari alias Abu Habs, Absmar Aluk alis Abu Adzmar or Abu Aluk, Bashier Abdul alias Abu Jar, Toting Hano alias Abu Jakaria, Jaid Awalal alias Abu Jaid, Mubin Ibbah alias Abu Black, Annik/Renne Abbas alias Abu Annik, Margani Hapilon Iblong alias Abu Nadim, Lidjalong Sakandal/Sabandal, Imran Hakimin y Sulaiman alias Abu Imran, Nadzmer Isnani Mandangan alias Abu Harun, Kamar Jaafar alias Abu Jude, Sonny Asali alias Abu Teng or Abu Umbra, and Bashier Ordonez alias Abu Bashier. The three nurses and the lone hospital accountant were abducted on June 2, 2001. In October that year, Guillo escaped from his captors while Tabunag was released supposedly after paying ransom. Malonzo was also released a month later. A year after her abduction, Yap died in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf during a rescue operation by the military. Government forces later captured the 17 Abu Sayyaf men and held them for trial. In 2004, the Isabela, Basilan Regional Trial Court convicted the accused of kidnapping and serious illegal detention. They were also sentenced to death. The accused then appealed the lower court's ruling to the Court of Appeals, which in 2008 affirmed the guilty verdict but modified the death penalty to life imprisonment. This is because the death penalty was repealed in 2006. The accused brought the matter to the Supreme Court, which sustained the decisions of the Basilan court and the Court of Appeals. — Sophia Dedace/RSJ, GMA News 
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