Guilty verdict on 3
ASG bombers affirmed

THE Court of Appeals has affirmed the guilty verdict on three Abu Sayyaf members who were appealing the ruling of the Makati regional trial court in connection with the bombing of a passenger bus in Makati City on Valentines' Day 2005.

Accused Gamal Baharan alias Tapay, Angelo Trinidad alias Abu Khalil, and Indonesian Rohmat Abdurrohim, alias Jackie/Zaky were found guilty by Makati RTC of the complex crime of multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder and sentenced to death on Oct. 18, 2005.

Also charged in absentia were the late ASG leader Khaddafy Janjalani, Gappal Bannah Asali alias Maidan or Negro, Jainal Sali alias Abu Solaiman and other John and Jane Does.

Asali later turned state witness.

The Feb. 14 bombing incident killed four persons and injured 64 others. The suspects planted an improvised bomb inside an RRCG bus plying the southbound Edsa route. The explosion took place near the crowded Ayala station of the Metro Rail Transit at about 7:30 pm.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Edgardo Sundiam, the CA 17th Division upheld the RTC findings but modified the death sentence, which has been outlawed by Republic Act 9346, to life with no possibility of parole.

Two of the accused, Baharan and Trinidad, confirmed their roles in the attack during interviews with ABS-CBN. They also pled guilty before the RTC. The appellate court did not give merit to their claims later that the trial court failed to explain to them the consequences of their guilty plea and said there was no indication that their pleas were entered involuntarily due to the coaxing of their counsels or that the judge threatened them with physical harm.

The CA said the third accused, the Indonesian Abdurrohim who denied the allegations, should be held liable although no direct evidence showed that he agreed to commit the crime. It noted that his defense consisted mainly of his self-serving testimony. "His acts before and after the bombing incident evince a commonality in the design sufficient to make him a co-conspirator thereto," the CA said.

The Court gave weight on the testimony of Asali that he prepared the bombs and facilitated the commission of the crime upon the instruction of Abdurrohim, who personally trained him in making explosives.

The CA also gave merit to the testimony of bus conductor Elmer Andales who positively identified Baharan and Trinidad as the two passengers who got off the Ayala station in a hurry.