SC: Conviction of Abu Sayyaf men behind nurses' kidnapping is final

The Supreme Court has sustained the guilty verdict against 17 Abu Sayyaf men behind the kidnapping of hospital workers in Basilan province a decade ago. In a resolution, the Supreme Court's Second Division denied with finality the appeals of the accused, who were already convicted for 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. "The Court resolves to deny the motion with finality, the basic issues therein having been duly considered and passed upon by the Court in the aforesaid decision and no substantial argument having been adduced to warrant the reconsideration sought," said the high court. Those convicted were:

• 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 17 men abducted the three nurses and the lone hospital accountant on June 2, 2001. In October that year, accountant Guillo escaped from his captors while nurse 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 convicted kidnappers 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in 2008 affirmed the guilty verdict but modified the death penalty to life imprisonment because the death penalty was repealed in 2006. They brought the matter to the Supreme Court, which sustained the decisions of the Basilan court and the Court of Appeals. — VS, GMA News