De Lima's swift action on Batasan blast case urged

Relatives of the victims of the November 2007 bombing at the Batasan Complex on Wednesday urged Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to reinstate former party-list Rep. Mujiv Hataman in the charge sheet. Five people were killed in the late-night explosion, including then-Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar, and injured 12 others. Akbar’s niece Tahira Ismael-Sansawi, and Nor-Rhama Indanan, wife of Kimhar Indanan, Akbar’s bodyguard who was seriously injured in the bombing, along with several others, went to the Department of Justice to seek audience with De Lima, but the Justice secretary was in Malacañang. The group was asking De Lima to hand down her ruling on the separate petitions for review that the victims’ families filed. Specifically, the group is seeking to block the appointment of Hataman as temporary governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) after learning that he was one of those being considered by President Benigno Aquino III for the post. “Wala pong bahid-pulitika ang pag-follow-up namin sa kaso. Nakay Pangulong Aquino na ang pagpapasya kung pipiliin niya si Hataman bilang OIC ng ARMM," Sansawi told reporters. “It has been four years since the incident and we are urging the DOJ to take a second look into this case." Charges for multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder were filed against former Basilan Rep. Gerry Salapuddin, and co-respondents Hataman, former Tuburan, Basilan Mayor Hajarun Jamiri, Ikram Indama, Caidar Aunal, Adham Kusain, PO1 Bayan Judda, Julhan Kunam, and Benjamin Hataman before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court. Salapuddin remains at large while Indama bolted from his custodial officers at the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) in October 2008 while the case was still pending. In their petition for review, the complainants sought to set aside the Feb. 22, 2008 and April 2, 2008 resolutions dismissing the case against Hataman and several others for insufficiency of evidence, and instead issue a new one finding probable cause for their prosecution for multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder. They alleged that the investigating panel led by Senior State Prosecutor Peter Ong gravely erred in finding that there was insufficient evidence to indict Hataman and Kunam for the crimes. The complainants claimed the evidence that the DOJ investigating panel ignored to justify the dismissal of charges against respondents were the same evidence used by the panel to rationalize the indictment of the rest of respondents who were charged in court. “The testimonies of witnesses and pieces of evidence complainants presented did not only establish probable cause but are more than sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction before any court… The panel affirmatively ruled upon the admissibility of the confessions embodied in the affidavits executed by Ikram Indama and Hajarun Jamiri, both of which point to the active participation of respondents Hataman in the planning of the killing of Congressman Akbar," they said. Indama’s affidavit narrated that he was present when Salapuddin instructed the now-deceased suspect Redwan Indama to kill Akbar. - KBK, GMA News