MANILA: The Department of Justice will file criminal charges against
38 people believed to be members of the self-styled Sulu Sultan's “royal
army”.
Justice Secretary Leila DeLima said cases for illegal
possession of firearms, violation of the Election Gun Ban and violation
of Article 118 of the Revised Penal Code for Inciting to War or Giving
Motives for reprisals would be filed before the Bongao, Tawi-Tawi
Regional Trial Court on Friday.
She said inquest proceedings against the 38 were held Thursday evening.
An
inquest proceeding is an informal and summary investigation conducted
by the public prosecutor in a criminal case involving persons arrested
without warrant for the purpose of determining whether he or she should
remain under custody and correspondingly be charged in court.
The 38 will be detained in a naval facility in Panlima, Tawi-tawi, De Lima said.
They
are said to be followers of Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram who were
intercepted by the Navy off Tawi-Tawi on Wednesday with a cache of arms
after apparently fleeing Sabah.
The interception of the group
came a month after Agbimuddin Kiram and his men crossed by speedboats
from Tawi-Tawi to Lahad Datu on Feb 9 to press the sultanate's claim to
Sabah, triggering a standoff with Malaysian forces.
More than 60 people have been reported killed since then, nine of them members of the Malaysian security forces.
The
Philippine Navy vessel PS38 intercepted the first boat of 18 men and
one woman in the waters off Omapoy Island at 6:35am Wednesday. The
second boat ferrying 18 others in the waters off Andulingan Island was
stopped about an hour later. Both islands are in the Tawi-Tawi group, De
Lima said.
De Lima said the boats' occupants identified
themselves as members of the RSF, and this was confirmed by some
witnesses. Agbimuddin was not among them.
“From all indications
they are probablythey were part of the Raja Muda group who went there
and then got involved in the conflict with Malaysian forces and then
came back home, and one of them is wounded,'' De Lima told a press
conference on Wednesday.
She said they were not “fall guys.''
Agbimuddin's
followers were taken to a naval facility in Panglima Sugala town in
Tawi-Tawi and interrogated by a team from the National Bureau of
Investigation and the Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
Source : The Star Online
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