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Manila: Three Islamist militants were sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for their involvement in a bus-bombing in Makati City that killed four people and injured 68 others in 2005, the Court of Appeals said.
In a 25-page decision, Justice Edgardo Sundiam upheld the ruling of the Makati Regional Trial Court which had commuted to life imprisonment the death sentences of Gamal Baharan, also know as Tapay; Angelo Trinidad, alias Abu Khalil, and Rohmat Abdurrohim, alias Jackie or Zaky.
Baharan, 35, is a member of the Abu Sayyaf, (ASG), a terror outfit based in Mindanao. Trinidad is one of the founders of the Manila-based Rajah Solaiman Group (RSG) which is composed of Christians who had converted to Islam. Abdurrohim, an Indonesian national, is part of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) whose members have sought refuge in Mindanao since 2003. As per court records, Baharan and Trinidad planted a bomb inside a bus on February 14, 2005. They detonated the device as they alighted from the bus at the southbound intersection of EDSA and Ayala Avenue.
Wilfredo Rosarito, a relative of one of the victims, and a bus conductor identified Baharan and Trinidad who in turn implicated Abdurrohim, saying the JI member was one of the brains behind the so-called Valentine's bombings that included simultaneous attacks in the southern cities of Davao, and General Santos. They said ASG leader Khadaffy Janjalani and Abu Solaiman, a senior ASG leader, were the masterminds of the bombings that left a total of eight people dead and 120 injured.
Baharan and Trinidad admitted during interrogation that Abdurrohim provided training in a camp in Lanao del Sur in the south in early 2004. Baharan said that, in October 2004, the ASG and the JI had jointly trained militants in Palawan to carry out seaborne terror attacks. He claimed that Janjalani enjoyed direct access to Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden via satellite phone. Authorities did not confirm the allegation.
Former ASG members testified that Baharan was involved in the kidnapping of foreign tourists from Sipadan, a Malaysian resort, in April 2000. The ASG has been virtually headless after security forces accounted for Khadaffy in 2006, and Solaiman in 2007.
- With inputs from Rafael Juan
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