Members of Abu Sayyaf arrested for Zamboanga bombing up for transfer

From the Business World (Jan 27): Members of Abu Sayyaf arrested for Zamboanga bombing up for transfer

DETAINED Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) bandits accused of being behind last week’s car bombing in Zamboanga City may be transferred to another facility in the province, Justice Secretary Leila M. de Lima told reporters yesterday.

Although the Department of Justice (DoJ) has asked the Supreme Court to have their cases heard in Metro Manila, instead of Zamboanga, the bandits detained in Zamboanga City Reformatory Center may be transferred to San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm, Ms. de Lima said.

The said penitentiary houses convicts in a facility outside the city center and is under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Corrections, a DoJ-attached agency.

Ms. de Lima confirmed yesterday that Prosecutor-General Claro A. Arellano filed on Monday the petition for the jurisdiction of Abu Sayyaf members’ cases to be transferred to a Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Metro Manila.

The move would enable the assigned RTC to have the detainees transferred to the high-security Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

“We made representations already to the Supreme Court, specifically the Office of the Court Administrator or the Deputy Administrator, if they could refer it right away to the en banc... so it could be acted upon immediately by the en banc,” Ms. de Lima said.

Ms. de Lima said she was coordinating with Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Manuel “Mar” A. Roxas II for Camp Bagong Diwa “to again absorb high-risk inmates.” The DILG supervises the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, which has jurisdiction over the detainees.

“I think Secretary Mar reminded me of the need to transfer these detainees, so I told him that we have filed a petition with the Supreme Court,” she noted.

The same process was also employed with members of the Moro National Liberation Front faction that besieged the city in 2013, before they were eventually transferred to Metro Manila.

Ms. de Lima recalled that the DoJ already asked the Supreme Court in 2012 for the jurisdiction over Abu Sayyaf detainees to be transferred from Basilan to a Metro Manila court. The high court only reassigned the bandits’ cases to nearby Zamboanga City.

The move to transfer the Abu Sayyaf detainees came as a result of the car bombing, which killed two people and wounded almost 50 in the Western Mindanao port city that serves as a gateway to the restive island-provinces of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines raised the city’s alert level status to red following the Friday attack, which was deemed a failed attempt by the group of ASG leader Furuji Indama to facilitate the escape of his brother, kidnapping suspect Benzar Indama. Also jailed in the facility is Musang Indama, another relative of the Abu Sayyaf leader.

http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Nation&title=members-of-abu-sayyaf-arrested-for-zamboanga-bombing-up-for-transfer&id=101653