SC clears ex-Basilan lawmaker of charges over 2007 Batasan blast

The Supreme Court  has cleared former Basilan Rep. Abdulgani "Gerry" Salapuddin of criminal charges, more than five years after the November 2007 Batasan bombing that killed five people, including then-Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar. In a decision penned by Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco, the high court's Third Division unanimously voted (5-0) to reverse a Court of Appeals ruling in 2008 that upheld the filing of the complex crime of multiple murder and frustrated murder against the former lawmaker. Supporting the Department of Justice's earlier findings, the high tribunal said despite a confession made by suspect Ikram Indama that tagged Salapuddin, there was no "competent evidence to establish probable cause." “Clearly thus, an extrajudicial confession is binding only on the confessant. It cannot be admitted against his or her co-accused and is considered as hearsay against them.” said the high court. The SC said the Justice secretary at the time "decided in accordance with the dictates of our jurisprudence in overturning the investigating prosecutors and ordering Salapuddin’s exclusion from the Information." The high court said Salapuddin cannot be accused of committing an "overt act... of assisting" in the attack because there was no testimony suggesting he was at the crime site at the time of the blast. “The confession of Ikram relied on by investigating prosecutors and the appellate court does not provide the threshold consistent picture that would justify Salapuddin’s complicity in the conspiracy that led to the Batasan bombing,” the SC said. “The discrepancies in Ikram’s affidavits and the variations in the statements of the other accused do not persuade this Court to find probable cause that Salapuddin, who was indicted primarily because of Ikram’s confession, was part of the conspiracy that led to the Batasan bombing,” it added. The SC said the CA, in overturning the Justice secretary's order to strike off Salapuddin's name from the charge sheet, failed to 'sufficiently explain" how the secretary committed grave abuse of discretion. Apart from Salapuddin, those earlier implicated in the late-night blast that killed five people and wounded 12 others were  former party-list Rep. Mujiv Hataman and Julham Kunam. The Hatamans and Salapuddin are known political enemies of Akbar. In the Feruary 22, 2008 and April 2, 2008 resolutions, the Justice department dismissed the charges against Hataman and Kunam due to insufficient evidence. Relatives of the bombing victims sought a review of the case, but the Department of Justice once again denied the plea, saying: "We find no reversible error in the assailed resolution dismissing the complaint against respondents for the complex crime of multiple murder and frustrated murder." — LBG, GMA News