Former Basilan Mayor nabbed for illegal possession of firearm, probed for possible involvement in Batasan bombing

By Ronron
November 20, 2007

Police has taken into custody a former Mayor of Tuburan, Basilan for illegal possession of firearm and his possible involvement in the November 13 Batasan bombing that killed Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar and three other Congress staffers.

Ex-Mayor Hajarun Jamiri was nabbed in Manila City at around 3pm Monday, said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, Jr., as joint Army and police operatives were conducting follow up operations to the Batasan bombing.

Torres said the government agents were supposed to locate an inn where the bomb used in the Batasan incident was prepared, based on the information provided by the three arrested and charged suspects.

But when the troops arrived at the vicinity of Don Pepe’s Inn along San Andres Street in Malate, they saw Jamiri loitering around, with an unlicensed caliber 45, Torres said.

The government troops accosted him and asked for papers supporting his gun but failed to show any, said Torres.

Subsequently, when the government agents proceeded to search the Don Pepe’s Inn at around 6pm, they saw Halik Usman, a former security agent of Jamiri, inside.

Torres said Jamiri and Usman were billeted in the same inn for three months already.

Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG)-National Capital Region (NCR) chief Sr. Supt. Asher Dolina said they invited Usman for questioning at Camp Crame because a check at his clothes, body, motorcycle, helmet and jacket yielded positive for nitrate.

“If you are positive with nitrate, more or less, you held chemicals that contain nitrate such as bombs or TNT (trinitrotoluene),” Dolina explained.

But Usman allegedly denied any involvement in the Batasan bombing and yielded no bomb or any of its components.

“We have no enough evidence to hold him so we also released him on the same night. But we just got his full name and other data for future reference,” Dolina said.

As for Jamiri, police charged him yesterday afternoon for illegal possession of firearm before the Manila City Prosecutor’s Office.

Torres said Jamiri will remain under the custody of the CIDG since he may also be investigated for his possible involvement in the Batasan bombing. Jamiri is said to be a political rival also of Akbar in Basilan.

“He may be investigated too (in relation to the Batasan bombing) because why was he at the place, which the three arrested suspects tagged as the venue for the preparation of the bomb,” Torres said of Jamiri.

“But we cannot definitely say yet that he is a suspect to the Batasan bombing,” he added.

Torres said the three suspects, who have been charged before the Department of Justice for multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder over the Batasan bombing incident, have disclosed that another bomb was allegedly prepared in that inn to be used in an attack at the house of Akbar in Valle Verde, Pasig City.

“There is supposed to be an alternate plan… So we are validating all of these information that come in that’s why we conducted the operation last night (Monday),” he said.

Torres said the information suggests that in case the assassination plot in Batasan fails, the bombing will be carried out at Akbar’s residence in Valle Verde.

The police had earlier said that the suspects initially planned to carry out the plot against Akbar last November 12, but their subject was not around. Thus, it happened on the following day.

Quoting the statements of the suspects, the police said the plan was made as early as October 20 at a grocery store owned by former Basilan Rep. Gerry Salappudin in Quezon City.

But police are not yet disclosing the mastermind and the motive for the attack pending the conduct of follow up operations.

They are not also implicating yet Salappudin and Anak Mindanao Rep. Mujiv Hataman, both perceived to be political rivals of Akbar, due to lack of evidence. The two already denied participation in the crime.

On Tuesday afternoon, a relative of Hataman who was among those charged before the DOJ went to the CIDG-NCR office in Camp Crame and denied the allegation that he is involved in the Batasan bombing.

“I came here voluntarily to the CIDG, with my lawyer, to tell them that I have nothing to do with the accusation against me. I just want to help the police, the CIDG in their investigation of the case,” Benjamin Hataman told reporters after giving his statement to the CIDG.

He said he showed up because he is afraid he will be picked up by police.

Benjamin Hataman was named by the three arrested suspects in their statements, suggesting that he had personal knowledge of the assassination plot against Akbar./DMS