COLLUSION: NO CATEGORICAL CLEARANCE
MANILA, August 3 , 2004 (STAR) By Aurea Calica - Former hostage Gracia Burnham did not categorically clear the military of collusion with her Abu Sayyaf captors.
All she said was that she had no "personal knowledge" of the collusion, which she alluded to in her book "In the Presence of My Enemies."
And she did not comment on the collusion during her three-hour court appearance in Manila last Thursday, contrary to the announcement of government prosecutors.
Instead, Burnham told Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño about her lack of personal knowledge while she was being prepared for her testimony.
Zuño himself said "we can say that" it might have been a misinterpretation on the part of State Prosecutor Nestor Lazaro, who reported that he personally heard Burnham say during her testimony that there was no collusion between the military and the Islamist group.
Lazaro said the prosecutors objected to the defense panel’s question about the collusion since it was immaterial to the case, but Burnham replied before the judge sustained their objection.
But Zuño belied Lazaro’s claims, saying the question on collusion was left unanswered.
"The defense counsel proceeded to another point and left that particular point, the collusion point, unanswered. Until the termination of the cross-examination, the defense did not pursue that particular question," Zuño told reporters.
"There was no direct testimony from Gracia Burnham that there was no collusion. But just the same, there was no categorical statement that there was collusion," Zuño said.
Sources said one of the prosecutors reviewed the video of Burnham’s testimony and found she made no direct statement on the alleged collusion.
Zuño said Burnham had all the opportunity to pin down who she thought were involved in the collusion during her court appearance, but she did not because she had no direct knowledge of the alleged conspiracy.
He said Burnham, during the interviews held to prepare her to appear in court, even identified who among the hostages paid ransom but these details did not come out during the hearing.
On page 236 of her book, Burnham claimed that Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya told her and her husband they received P15 million as ransom payment, but that he asked for P30 million more.
"The defense was given full opportunity to cross-examine Gracia Burnham but they terminated the cross-examination after propounding a few questions," Zuño said. "When the testimony involved the personal knowledge of the witness, and the details were complete and the accused identified, it would be dangerous to conduct a long cross-examination. Because that would only make things clearer. So maybe the defense just opted not to ask too much questions about the direct testimony," he added.
Burnham wrote in her book that she overheard they had received food from the military because Sabaya had been "wheeling and dealing" with an Armed Forces of the Philippines or "AFP general of that area" on how to divide any ransom payment. Sabaya wanted to give the general 20 percent, but negotiations fell through after the general demanded 50 percent.
Zuño contended that the prosecutors also did not propound on the collusion during the hearing because their main objective was to establish the guilt of the alleged Abu Sayyaf members facing trial.
He said the transcript of stenographic notes will clear all doubts regarding Burnham’s testimony.
Senior State Prosecutor Leo Dacera said Burnham’s book became the basis of the government’s investigation into the collusion. But as far as the prosecutors are concerned, he said it was insufficient to draw conclusions from the book because Burnham had not been under oath.
When acting Justice Secretary Merceditas Gutierrez interviewed Burnham in Kansas, Dacera said Burnham told her that "all her knowledge as to the collusion is that she heard it through somebody."
"It was just a general impression, but with her statement now given in open court, I think it should put everything, all doubts, this matter to rest," Dacera said.
The DOJ has yet to release its official report on the investigation. Gutierrez said with the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, they are tracing an official who benefited from the ransom for the hostages and who deposited the money in a bank in the United States.
Burnham managed to identify six of the eight alleged Abu Sayyaf members facing trial for the 2001 kidnapping of hostages at a posh resort in Palawan.
Strong evidence
Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. insisted yesterday that there was collusion between the military and the Abu Sayyaf group of kidnappers.
Malacañang, on the other hand, sought to put an end to the issue of the military’s reported collusion with the Abu Sayyaf, saying what is important is Burnham, one of the group’s former hostages, testified against her captors.
Magsaysay, chairman of the Senate committee on national defense and security that investigated the Lamitan, Basilan incident of June 2, 2001, said there was "strong circumstantial evidence to support the allegation of collusion between the Abu Sayyaf group and some officers of the military."
"This was clear in the more than 68 hours of investigation conducted by the committee, in the testimonies of 41 witnesses and in over 1,500 pages of documents requested and received by the committee," he said.
Magsaysay said one piece of circumstantial evidence that tended to prove collusion was the fact that the Abu Sayyaf bandits were able to escape from the Lamitan hospital despite being surrounded by government troops.
How the bandits slipped through the military dragnet was never sufficiently explained, he added.
It was in Lamitan that hostages businessman Reghis Romero and a female companion escaped from their Abu Sayyaf captors.
Magsaysay was reacting to the statement of Lt. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, who led the military operations in Lamitan, that it was the media and politicians who made a big issue out of the alleged collusion.
The Lamitan hostage crisis led to an investigation of three ranking officers — Dominguez, Col. Jovenal Narcise and 18th Infantry Battalion deputy commander Maj. Eliseo Campued. Dominguez was subsequently cleared and now heads the Northern Luzon Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
The Senate defense committee recommended the court martial of several military officers led by Dominguez, but the military ignored its recommendation.
The Lamitan incident and the Abu Sayyaf were in the news again after Burnham testified in court last Thursday and identified six of her late husband’s abductors.
There were conflicting reports on what Burnham told the Pasig regional trial court, which did not allow the media to cover her testimony at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig. Initially, she was reported as saying there was no collusion between the bandits and the military.
Magsaysay said if this is true, then the former Abu Sayyaf hostage contradicted the account of her ordeal in captivity as contained in her book. He said Burnham devoted an entire chapter entitled, "Hospital of Horror" to the Lamitan incident.
In the chapter, she expressed surprise on how her kidnappers escaped from government troops who had cordoned off the Lamitan hospital, he said.
Magsaysay requested Pasig Regional Trial Court Judge Lorifel Pahimna yesterday for a transcript of Burnham’s testimony so he could compare it with her account in her book and the defense committee’s findings.
In blaming the media and politicians, Dominguez said "small lapses" of the commanders in Lamitan "were magnified and linked to imagined collusion to feed the discontent of an exasperated public."
"Yet, we in the military would have wanted nothing better than to end the people’s grief by destroying the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers holed up in that (hospital) compound in Lamitan," he said.
While Magsaysay’s committee found evidence of collusion, a parallel investigation conducted by the House defense committee, chaired by Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay Jr., cleared officers and soldiers involved in the Lamitan siege.
Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye dismissed the public debate on whether Burnham’s testimony had cleared the military of collusion allegations.
"What needs to be underscored is the resolve of Gracia Burnham to really go after the terrorists, to see to it that these terrorists are brought to justice. And we’re very thankful for that," he told reporters.
State prosecutors from the Department of Justice have been accused of misquoting Burnham’s testimony. Based on the DOJ prosecutors’ claims, President Arroyo had issued an official statement thanking Burnham for having cleared the military of the allegations.
The Palace went "by the declaration of the DOJ prosecutors that she (Burnham) did not make any statements about the alleged collusion."
At the same time, Maj. Edilberto Adan said the issue of the military’s reported collusion with the Abu Sayyaf should be put to rest in the absence of new evidence.
"It happened more than two years ago, I think we should let it rest," said Adan, the AFP’s newly installed spokesman.
He explained that as far as the military is concerned, there is no solid proof to warrant court martial proceedings against officers accused of bungling the Lamitan rescue operation.
"The leadership of the (AFP) at that time did not have enough evidence or basis to constitute a court martial," Adan said, adding that "if there would be additional evidence and witnesses, that action might be taken but as I said it has been more than two years, nothing concrete has come out."
Victims of circumstance
Meanwhile, Defense Undersecretary Ernesto Carolina, who was then commander of the Armed Forces’ Southern Command (Southcom) based in Zamboanga City, said Burnham has vindicated the military from allegations by Catholic priest Fr. Cirilo Nacorda that they connived with the Abu Sayyaf.
Nacorda’s claims had tainted and done irreparable damage to the military officers he accused of colluding with the Abu Sayyaf bandits, he said.
"It is very good that Burnham came back and once and for all cleared them. Those officers were victims of circumstance," Carolina said.
Carolina said it was unfortunate that he was not able to see Burnham again when she arrived in Manila to testify against six of the eight alleged Abu Sayyaf members now in government custody.
"I would have wanted to even just say ‘hi’ to her. I don’t think she knew how she was rescued," he said, citing the heroism of all military personnel involved in the efforts to rescue Burnham, her husband Martin and the other hostages.
The Burnhams, longtime missionaries for the Florida-based New Tribes Mission, were celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary when the Abu Sayyaf snatched them at a posh resort off Palawan on May 27, 2001, taking them by speedboat to southern Basilan island.
An Army raid on June 7, 2002, left Burnham with a gunshot wound to her thigh and killed her husband and Filipino nurse Edibora Yap in a jungle ravine near the southern coastal town of Sirawai in Zamboanga del Norte.
Carolina said he clearly remembers how he felt when he accompanied Burnham in the United States military’s C-130 aircraft that carried her from Zamboanga City to Manila the day following her rescue in Sirawai.
"Lying in bed, she held my hand and thanked us as I told her that we did our best to rescue Martin alive," he told The STAR, adding that he remembered Burnham’s sigh of relief as she expressed her gratitude.
Carolina said the rescue operation took careful planning.
"It was really the best efforts of our men in all units involved ... You can just imagine the risks involved," he said of Operation Daybreak launched in May 2001 for the rescue of the remaining Palawan resort hostages, including the Burnhams and Yap.
Carolina also recalled that when Burnham was rescued, the Philippine Air Force’s Huey helicopters were used to transport her from Sirawai to Navarro Hospital inside the Southcom compound.
"Even if we have been receiving so many criticisms with our Huey helicopters, they were the very ones that helped save Gracia’s life. Now it can be told that at that time, it took a long time for the US forces to allow the use of their Chinook helicopters for Gracia, so we took the risk and I ordered the two pilots at that time to immediately evacuate Gracia’s wounded body to Zamboanga for treatment," he said.
Carolina also lamented Nacorda’s insistence that Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya is still alive. Sabaya was believed killed in a seaborne encounter off Sibuco town in Zamboanga del Norte on June 21, 2001 but his body was never recovered.
He pointed out that proof that "Sabaya is really dead" is that if the Abu Sayyaf leader had survived the clash, he would have grabbed the opportunity to tell the media about it. — With reports from Jess Diaz, Marichu Villanueva, Edith Regalado, Jaime Laude
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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