MANILA, Philippines—After four long years, the wife of former Congressman Mujiv Hataman broke her silence to detail the pain, trauma and fear of being associated with the man accused of being behind the 2007 bombing of the House of Representatives.
In an open letter she posted on Facebook entitled “The Batasan bombing: My untold story,” Sitti lamented how the bombing incident has changed their lives and tarnished the name of the family.
“The minute I introduce myself as a Hataman, a voice inside my head will always pray that the people do not judge me for the news attached to the name,” she said.
“It is, and will never be easy. Try to Google Hataman, and the Batasan bombing will always come out first,” she said.
“But more than me and Mujiv, I worry for our children. Much as I am a hundred and one percent of their father’s innocence on the incident, I know there are people who think otherwise. So I worry, sometimes even for the most trivial things, like, what if our children fall in love, but the parents of their loved ones reject them simply because of their family name?”
While in Zamboanga airport last year, Sitti said people were murmuring; “Si Hataman, si Hataman. Lumayo kayo baka may sumabog.”
“I wished I had six hands, so I can cover all of my children’s ears,” she said.
Indeed, their children, Sitti said, had not been spared.
While on a field trip weeks after the bombing incident, Sitti said their son Amin told his teacher, “Teacher, sabi nila ama ko daw nagpasabog sa Congress. Marami daw namatay. Hindi naman totoo yun.”
The kid, who was then seven years old, turned to his mother and said, “Di ba ina? Hindi totoo ‘yon?”
Sitti maintained that her husband was innocent.
On the day of the bombing, Sitti claimed that she and her children would have been in the House of Representatives to pick up Hataman.
But on their way to the House of Representatives, she said, their kids fell asleep so she decided to bring them home first, went to a meeting before proceeding to Congress.
“We were exactly at the curb where Sandigan is when it exploded. I stepped on the brakes. Then police cars swarmed before us going to Congress. I calmed myself, and called Mujiv. When he answered his voice was frantic, telling me there was an explosion, he doesn’t know where. He, along with other congressmen were at the South Lounge. He told me to go straight home,” Sitti said.
“I would have been exactly where the bomb exploded when it did. I usually park my X-trail at the South parking, enter the Building through the Southwing entrance, pass by the Southwing lobby, because Mujiv’s office is at the 4th Floor of Southwing,’ she said.
“So even if you open my heart, I do not have a drop of doubt of Mujiv’s innocence. But you don’t have to believe me. What matters is I have said why I believe in him,” she further said.
The case against Hataman has been dismissed by the court but the incident continues to haunt the family now that the issue was being used against him when his name was mentioned as possible officer in-charge of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Sitti branded the revival of the case as “political harassment.”
People who do not want him to be in position, or those who simply find fulfilment in destroying his name find the Batasan bombing a very handy tool. But as they joyfully hammer us, allow me to shamelessly cry in pain, cause it hurts… a lot,” she said.
Sitti then challenged those who have evidence against Hataman to just go to court and prove his guilt.
But to use the issue for own political interests, she said, was not just political harassment against the former congressman “but an assault to us, his family.”