CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/08 August) – Police filed multiple and multiple murder charges on Wednesday against six suspects in the July 26 bombing in Cagayan de Oro City that killed eight people and wounded 46 others.
In their complaint, however, police named only one suspect, Usman Hapids alias Mam-man, while the five others which included a female were identified as John Does and Jane Doe.
The suspects are alleged members of Khilafa Islamiyah Mindanao, an obscure group linked to the al-Qaeda.
The filing of the case before the City Prosecutor’s Office was done hours before the Senate committee on public order chaired by Senator Grace Poe-Llamanzares held a public hearing on the bombing.
The blast hit Kyla’s Bistro at the Limketkai Rosario Arcade. Many of the victims were physicians and medical representatives who attended the midyear convention of the Philippine College of Chest Physicians.
Senior Inspector Pepito Ilagan Reyes of the Cagayan de Oro police criminal investigation office who filed the complaint said the suspects were identified by at least five witnesses from the Philippine National Police (PNP) rogues photo gallery of alleged terrorists.
“Respondent Usman Hapids was positively identified as the one who left the bag on top of the chair where he was seated,” Reyes said in the two-page complaint.
City Prosecutor Fidel Macauyag said the police submitted an affidavit by witnesses that the six suspects went to the Limketkai Rosario Arcade around 5 p.m. on July 26 and ordered dinner at Gloria Maris Restaurant.
“The suspects including Hapids sat together. They had dinner together. Later on they separated. Hapid and one of the suspects were on one table talking while the four others were seated on another table,” Macauyag narrated the contents of the affidavits submitted by the police.
He said the affidavit also said that the suspects left together and was not seen by the witnesses until 11 p.m. when Hapids returned alone, ordered beer at Kyla’s Bistro and left, leaving a powerful bomb fashioned from an 81mm mortar.
An Army officer said the Khilafa Islamiyah Mindanao is a small terror group based in Southwestern Mindanao and was previously unknown until it came under the scrutiny of the PNP.
“Their members are few. Less than 20 in number but they are the result of the merger of the most hardcore members of Jemaah Islamiyah, Abu Sayyaf and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters,” the army officer who is an expert in counter-terrorism said.
Philippine Independent Church Bishop Felixberto Calang, however, threw caution on the police allegation.
Calang said in 2003, police and the military also blamed terrorists as responsible for the series of bombings in Davao City and the rest of Mindanao.
“It turned out that the bombings were perpetuated by government agents themselves. It was part of a plot to perpetuate former President Gloria Arroyo,” the bishop said.
Macauyag said police did not provide a postal address of Hapids making it difficult for his office to deliver a subpoena that would require the suspect to answer the police allegations.
“What Hapids can do is to ask a reinvestigation when he gets to be arrested by the police. That is his right,” he said.
The prosecutor said that aside from the sworn statements of witnesses the police presented as evidence a machine-validated official receipt from the Gloria Maris Restaurant and the results of the post-blast investigation.
“Based on the evidence presented by the police, there is probable cause to indict them,” Macauyag said.
He said he had organized a special panel of prosecutors to handle this case and have scheduled a hearing with the witnesses on August 20.
He said warrants of arrests might be issued by the court before the Cagayan de Oro fiesta on August 28. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)
In their complaint, however, police named only one suspect, Usman Hapids alias Mam-man, while the five others which included a female were identified as John Does and Jane Doe.
The suspects are alleged members of Khilafa Islamiyah Mindanao, an obscure group linked to the al-Qaeda.
The filing of the case before the City Prosecutor’s Office was done hours before the Senate committee on public order chaired by Senator Grace Poe-Llamanzares held a public hearing on the bombing.
The blast hit Kyla’s Bistro at the Limketkai Rosario Arcade. Many of the victims were physicians and medical representatives who attended the midyear convention of the Philippine College of Chest Physicians.
Senior Inspector Pepito Ilagan Reyes of the Cagayan de Oro police criminal investigation office who filed the complaint said the suspects were identified by at least five witnesses from the Philippine National Police (PNP) rogues photo gallery of alleged terrorists.
“Respondent Usman Hapids was positively identified as the one who left the bag on top of the chair where he was seated,” Reyes said in the two-page complaint.
City Prosecutor Fidel Macauyag said the police submitted an affidavit by witnesses that the six suspects went to the Limketkai Rosario Arcade around 5 p.m. on July 26 and ordered dinner at Gloria Maris Restaurant.
“The suspects including Hapids sat together. They had dinner together. Later on they separated. Hapid and one of the suspects were on one table talking while the four others were seated on another table,” Macauyag narrated the contents of the affidavits submitted by the police.
He said the affidavit also said that the suspects left together and was not seen by the witnesses until 11 p.m. when Hapids returned alone, ordered beer at Kyla’s Bistro and left, leaving a powerful bomb fashioned from an 81mm mortar.
An Army officer said the Khilafa Islamiyah Mindanao is a small terror group based in Southwestern Mindanao and was previously unknown until it came under the scrutiny of the PNP.
“Their members are few. Less than 20 in number but they are the result of the merger of the most hardcore members of Jemaah Islamiyah, Abu Sayyaf and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters,” the army officer who is an expert in counter-terrorism said.
Philippine Independent Church Bishop Felixberto Calang, however, threw caution on the police allegation.
Calang said in 2003, police and the military also blamed terrorists as responsible for the series of bombings in Davao City and the rest of Mindanao.
“It turned out that the bombings were perpetuated by government agents themselves. It was part of a plot to perpetuate former President Gloria Arroyo,” the bishop said.
Macauyag said police did not provide a postal address of Hapids making it difficult for his office to deliver a subpoena that would require the suspect to answer the police allegations.
“What Hapids can do is to ask a reinvestigation when he gets to be arrested by the police. That is his right,” he said.
The prosecutor said that aside from the sworn statements of witnesses the police presented as evidence a machine-validated official receipt from the Gloria Maris Restaurant and the results of the post-blast investigation.
“Based on the evidence presented by the police, there is probable cause to indict them,” Macauyag said.
He said he had organized a special panel of prosecutors to handle this case and have scheduled a hearing with the witnesses on August 20.
He said warrants of arrests might be issued by the court before the Cagayan de Oro fiesta on August 28. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)
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