59 Maute suspects ordered freed

Government prosecutors have tossed out the rebellion charges lodged against 59 suspected members of the Islamic State-linked Maute terror group, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said on Friday.

In a text message to the Inquirer, Aguirre said a panel of state prosecutors from the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday ordered the release from detention of the alleged terrorists after they found “no probable cause” to indict them for rebellion.

“The DOJ will not be part of any injustice,” Aguirre said in a statement.

“If in the assessment of our panel of prosecutors there is no basis to charge a person in court, such finding should be respected,” he said.

The justice secretary said he has yet to receive confirmation if the alleged Maute members, most of whom were teenagers, had already been released from a tightly-guarded jail facility inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City, where they were taken after their arrest.

Twenty-seven of them were held in a joint police and military checkpoint in Zamboanga City, while the others were accosted at another checkpoint in Ipil town, Zamboanga Sibugay province, on July 25.

As requested by the DOJ, the Supreme Court had approved their detention at the Special Intensive Care Area of Camp Bagong Diwa.

A DOJ panel of prosecutors headed by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong conducted the preliminary investigation of the criminal complaint filed against the suspected Maute members.

Assisted by lawyers from the Public Attorney’s Office, they insisted that they were only recruited by a certain Nur Supian to join the Moro National Liberation Front in exchange for P30,000.

“It is clear that respondents were not committing the crime of rebellion or any crime at the time of their arrests,” Ong and two other prosecutors said in their findings, a copy of which was seen by the Associated Press.

The men, who traveled in two big groups, may have sparked the suspicion of troops and police at checkpoints because of the Marawi siege, “but suspicion alone is not sufficient to arrest, detain, charge and indict respondents,” the prosecutors said.

Military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said the military respects the prosecutors’ decision. —AP