BACK BEHIND BARS Ali Ali at the QCPD’s Cubao station. —ALIANA LOIS DIAZ
When Australian Ali Ali was arrested in Cubao, Quezon City, on May 29, police clapped him in jail for alleged possession of two sachets of “shabu” (crystal meth) and participation in a drug session.
They would later discover that he had been involved in far worse crimes in his home country and in Mindanao where he lived for more than three years.
When the Inquirer saw him early this month, Ali, 45, stood shirtless among 37 fellow inmates in a small holding cell that has two small restrooms and three electric fans. Pointing to rashes on his skin, head and back, he complained: “It’s just hard living. It’s always init (hot) so we get all these (boils). I’ve lost count after 1… 2… 3. It’s contagious too, so someone else may have had it. My whole face is bruised,” he said.
Police said the 14-sqm male detention cell in police station 7 was meant to accommodate only three people, but it currently holds 80.
He has learned to be philosophical about it, said Ali. “You get used to an environment like this anyways because, look, it’s overcrowded (and) some people are lacking nourishment. Of course there’s gonna be a bit of tension, but it always comes down to a compromise. A few words and then somebody steps in and says, ‘Listen…’”
Senior Police Officer 4 Henry Navarro, intelligence officer at the Cubao police station, said Ali was not a cause for concern at the detention cell. “We arrested him on drug charges,” Navarro said, adding that he only learned about the Australian’s previous criminal record after the Inquirer had asked about it.
Two murders
The Philippine National Police records accessed by the Cubao police station online did not show any information on Ali’s two murder cases.
Ali first showed up in the country’s criminal justice system in 2015, when he was arrested for the murder of 17-year-old Alona Alvarez. It appeared that the two had met on Facebook.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald report on Feb. 4, 2015, police found the teener’s body in the room that Ali had occupied at the Antonio’s Pension House in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte province.The local police chief said
Ali had been seen on a CCTV footage with the teenager and could also be linked to her through Facebook and money transfer slips.
When Ali was arrested in Dumaguete City, he had a bandaged arm which had probably been injured when he hit his victim, police said.
Reported by the Sydney Morning Herald: “Ali told police the woman had bit (him when he asked for oral sex) and that he had punched her repeatedly until “her teeth came off.”
The report added that an autopsy attributed Alvarez’s death to acute respiratory failure, caused by multiple injuries. “Her face was so unrecognizable and horribly disfigured, the mortician had a hard time,” the police said.
The brutal murder prompted then Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago to ask the Senate to launch an investigation on the matter.
Local and international reports said Ali admitted to the crime saying he did it “out of selfdefense.”
Prior to the Alvarez murder, Ali had also been convicted and served a 15-year jail sentence for stomping on his fellow inmate’s head five times inside the Melbourne Custody Center in April 1999.
‘Vicious attack’
Michael Tully, who suffered severe brain damage, died in August 2002, according to a 2003 report by ABC News.
The judge who handled the case described Ali’s assault as an “unprovoked, vicious and sustained attack on a vulnerable and defenseless man.”
Asked about the Alvarez case, Ali said he didn’t want to discuss it. “I didn’t do that. I was acquitted of that. Let’s just leave it like that. No involvement at all in that,” he said. “It’s a sad story. Of course it is. A sad situation. She’s not here any more.”
The 2015 murder case was dismissed after Alvarez’s relatives signed an affidavit of desistance on Dec 6, 2017, said Dipolog police officer Vergil Dario.
Victim’s kin withdraws
“The family is no longer interested to pursue the case and will no longer testify against the accused,” complainant Algen Alvarez was quoted as saying in the court resolution.
As for the Tully case, Ali put it all to a “misunderstanding” and to his youth. He was 29 at the time.
“I don’t want to get into (all) details but I was very ‘bugoy’ (reckless) when I was younger. I’ve changed my ways now, but (the media) still don’t let go of the past,” he told the Inquirer.
“I just don’t like media because media is full of dirty tricks… The media in Australia burnt me, scolded me, flipped me.”
And his drug case in Quezon City? “Probably going to be dismissed,” Ali said. —WITH A REPORT FROM ALIANA LOIS DIAZ