Human rights defenders Temogen Tulawie and Abner Salahil Tahil filed complaints against Senator Leila De Lima and six others before the Office of the Ombudsman on Friday for graft and corruption.
Tulawie and Tahil claimed that de Lima and six other respondents violated Section 4 of Republic Act (RA) No. 10168, otherwise known as Financing of Terrorism.
Others in the complaint list are former Sulu Vice Mayor Abdusakur Tan, Philippine Bar member Atty. Wendell Sotto, former chairperson of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) Atty. Mehol Sadain, and former commissioner-in-charge of NCMF’s Bureau of Affairs Edilwasif Baddiri.
Tulawie said he and Tahil had personal knowledge of the acts complained against the respondents because the incident happened during the trial of a Criminal Case pending before Branch 19 Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Manila where they both stood as co-accused.
He explained that they have only managed to file the complaint now because at that time, Tulawie was still detained at the Manila City Jail while Tahil was detained at the Special Intensive Care Area (SICA) of Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig.
Special Intensive Care Area or commonly known as SICA is a special facility designed for high risk and dangerous inmates.
According to Tulawie, Tahil personally witnessed how the respondents entered into shadowy dealings with the Abu Sayaff Group (ASG) detained in SICA for the purpose of producing witnesses to pin down Tulawie in the pending criminal cases against them before RTC Branch 19 of Manila.
“The respondents, through abuse of authority, deceit, dishonesty and bribery made it appear on official records with the Department of Justice (DOJ) headed by Leila de Lima and the NCMF headed by Mehol Sadain that these ASG members were innocent Muslims wrongly arrested due to mistaken identity,” Tulawie mentioned.
He added that Abdusakur Tan, a long-time Governor of the Province of Sulu, often bragged that whoever will question him in Sulu will be slapped with criminal cases.
“Because of Tan’s close relationship with de Lima, he was able to use the powers of the DOJ to release, finance, shelter and protect Mohammad Sali Said who is a high-valued Abu Sayyaf member,” according to Tulawie.
Tulawie said that de Lima did not bother to respond to written protests, media statements and official communications to her office condemning the release of the three ASG inmates and allowed a member to be placed under the Witness Protection Program (WPP) and was given security protection, financial assistance and shelter by her office.
“We are filing this Complaint to contribute to the much needed efforts to finish the Abu Sayyaf Group and dismantle their mantle of protection that permeates various government offices,” said Tulawie.
