59 suspects linked to Marawi siege ordered freed

Male residents are frisked by police at a checkpoint as they leave Marawi city in southern Philippines Thursday, May 25, 2017. Army tanks packed with soldiers rolled into the southern Philippine city Thursday to try to restore control after ISIS-linked militants launched a violent siege that sent thousands of people fleeing for their lives and raised fears of extremists gaining traction in the country. AP file photo

(Updated, 10:37 a.m.) Because of weak evidence, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has dismissed the rebellion case filed against 59 suspected members of the Maute terror group, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said Friday.

The DOJ Chief in a phone interview said the 59 suspects have been ordered released by the panel of prosecutors after it has dismissed the complaint filed by the military.

“They did not find the military witness as credible,” Aguirre said in a phone interview.

Of the 59, 32 men were arrested at a checkpoint in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay while the remaining 27, four of whom were minors, were arrested along Daisy Road in Guiwan, Zamboanga City on July 25.

In their counter-affidavit, the suspects said they were recruited to join the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and promised a P30,000 monthly salary and will eventually become a military integree.

The DOJ panel is headed by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong.

“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 spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said the military respects the prosecutors’ decision but that security officials still believe the men could “perhaps be eventually deployed to Marawi.”

The ruling shows that the rule of law continues to work under martial law that was declared in the south by President Rodrigo Duterte to deal with the Marawi crisis, Padilla said, adding that the men were treated well and would be flown back to the south on an air force plane.

The 59 were taken into custody in southern Zamboanga city and Ipil town on July 25 amid intelligence reports that Muslim militants would attempt to reinforce the gunmen who attacked Marawi and were being bombarded by military airstrikes and ground assaults.

A lone witness said the mostly young Muslim men were to be given combat training and then deployed to reinforce the beleaguered militants, who were holding out in buildings and mosques in Marawi.

The arrested men strongly denied the allegation, saying they were recruited by a man who promised to bring them to a rebel camp for combat training and then help them be integrated into the military and police under a peace deal with the government.

Ong said he and the other prosecutors did not find the witness credible.

During a hearing at the Department of Justice on July 28, some of the arrested men, guarded by heavily armed police commandos, told reporters they were poor and jobless and in search of work and a better life.

The violence in Marawi, a center of Islamic faith in the south, has left nearly 800 people dead, including more than 600 militants, and sparked concerns that Islamic State group militants were gaining a foothold in Southeast Asia by helping influence and arm local militants.

An estimated 40 gunmen remain in Marawi and are continuing to fight as troops advance in previously scenic lakeside communities that are now a smoldering wasteland of disfigured buildings.