Reinvestigation set on murder raps vs Abu Sayyaf

From the Sun Star (Dec 2): Reinvestigation set on murder raps vs Abu Sayyaf

The Department of Justice will conduct a reinvestigation of the murder and kidnapping for ransom case filed against suspected members of the notorious Abu Sayyaf Group responsible for the abduction of six members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Patikul, Sulu in August 2002. Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong said the reinvestigation was based on the request made by several accused who, insisting on their innocence, claimed that they were randomly arrested by military officers based on erroneous intelligence data.

The reinvestigation will take place on Monday at 10 a.m., upon the orders of Judge Toribio Ilao Jr. of the Pasig regional trial court Branch 266, who has jurisdiction to hear the case at the Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, where the accused are currently detained while undergoing trial. Without naming the accused who requested for investigation, Ong said the RTC felt that there was merit in the request of the alleged suspects behind the abduction and the beheading of at least two Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The victims – four females and two males – were doing door-to-door sale of Avon cosmetic products when the Abu Sayyaf bandits seized them. Records showed that the bandits beheaded the two male hostages, whose bodies were found in an open air market in Jolo a day after they were kidnapped. Officials identified the two dead men as Lemuel Bantolo and Leonel Mantic. They said Mantic's 23-year-old wife was among the two other captives. The rest of the hostages were rescued after weeks of military operations against the Abu Sayyaf bandits in Sulu.

Last November 25, joint military and police operatives arrested in Zamboanga City another suspected Abu Sayyaf bandit involved in the 2002 kidnapping, based on the report of the Philippine Army’s First Infantry Division. Walid Amping alias Tuma has a standing warrant from the Pasig court, as well as for another murder case filed before a Zamboanga City RTC.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/breaking-news/2012/12/02/reinvestigation-set-murder-raps-vs-abu-sayyaf-256245