Abadilla 5 presents proof of innocence to victim's kin

MANILA, Philippines - Five men jailed for the murder of former Colonel Rolando Abadilla in 1996 on Thursday sent "proof" to Abadilla's family of their "innocence" in the incident. Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) said Thursday that running priest Robert Reyes relayed the letter and evidence of the so-called Abadilla 5 to the victim's kin. The suspects, in their open letter to Abadilla's kin, maintained they were wrongly arrested and detained since June 1996, and then "wrongly convicted and imprisoned" since 1999. According to them, they and their families "have suffered terribly, with some families broken in the process." "We ask you to take a good close look at two objects which appear to have belonged to Col. Abadilla (and which you must be familiar with) and were recovered from a source evidently responsible for his Sparrow unit-style ambush-killing, the old Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB)," they said in a letter posted on AHRC’s website. The first supposed evidence was Abadilla's Omega wristwatch taken by his ambush-killers and turned over by an ABB personality to Fr. Roberto P. Reyes on Jan. 5, 2000. Reyes turned the watch over to the Quezon City regional trial court when the case was still there. The second supposed evidence was Abadilla's cal-.45 pistol taken by his ambush-killers and recovered from a RPA-ABB element slain in an encounter with the PNP on March 31, 1998 in Rodriguez, Rizal. Other pieces of evidence included ballistics matchings (RPA-ABB) statements and a sworn statement for amnesty of a former ABB operative, all part of the case records. "We hope that the two objects mentioned above, which you should check out for yourselves, will convince you that it was really the ABB, not us who were never with the ABB, who committed the murder of Col. Abadilla," they said. Signing the letter were Lenido Lumanog, Augusto Santos and Rameses de Jesus. They were assisted by lawyer Soliman Santos Jr and public attorney Abraham Ong. - GMANews.TV