THE Justice Department has filed criminal charges before a regional trial court in Lanao del Sur against 54 suspected Maute group members, including a doctor linked to the Islamic State-inspired terrorist group for their involvement in the abduction and beheading of sawmill workers in 2016. Catalan and OIC-Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Amor L. Robles approved the resolution recommending the indictment of Salic and 53 other suspected Maute members.
The cases stemmed from the complaints of Gabriel Tomatao Permitis, Alfredo Sarsalejo Cano-os, Esperanza Permitis, Adonis Antipisto Mendez, and Julito Permitis Janubas who were all abducted by the Maute group while they were working in a sawmill in Butig, Lanao del Sur on April 4, 2016.
Two of their co-workers identified by the authorities as Jaymart Capangpangan and Salvador Janubas were beheaded six days after the kidnapping.
The complainants alleged that Salic was with the Maute terror group members who abducted them.
The complainants also claimed that they also saw Salic talking with Cayamora and Farhana Maute, the parents of the leaders of the Maute group.
Salic has been detained at an NBI cell in Manila since April this year. Salic has denied the allegation, saying that on the date cited by the complainants, he was working as a resident physician at the Northern Mindanao Medical Center in Cagayan de Oro City.
He said on April 5, 2016, he attended the 26th Philippine Orthopedic Association Mid-Year Convention in Palawan and that he returned to Cagayan de Oro City on April 10 of the same year.
In the resolution, the DoJ prosecutor ruled that after a review and evaluation of the evidence submitted by both parties, found probable cause exists to indict Salic and the other respondents.
The resolution said that an alibi “cannot outweigh the positive declarations of the complainants” who saw them inside the camp of the Maute group in Barangay Poktan, Butig, Lanao del Sur during their detention.
“Positive testimony is stronger than negative testimony and [an] alibi is worthless in the face of the positive identification,” the resolution said.
Besides, the DoJ said Salic’s negative assertion cannot prevail over the testimony of the complainants describing in sufficient detail his active participation in the commission of the crimes.
“Respondent Salic’s arguments that complainants’ accusations are fabrication and based on hearsay, and that they were coached to implicate him, deserve scant consideration,’ the resolution added.
In October 2017, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said the Justice Department was set to process the extradition request from the United States for Salic, who was one of the three individuals facing charges for allegedly plotting attacks in New York in the summer of 2016.
Aguirre said US court documents showed that Salic, who is an orthopedic surgeon, allegedly sent money to help planned the terror attacks.
He said US authorities informed the Philippine government that they were able to prevent the plot by Salic and two Islamic State group sympathizers Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy and Talha Haroon.