EDITORIAL - Porous police camps

As of yesterday afternoon, the word from the Philippine National Police was that Ikram Indama was in detention at Camp Bagong Diwa. The suspect in the bombing of the House of Representatives on Nov. 13 last year, which killed Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar and three others, had agreed to turn state witness and was held at the office of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group - National Capital Region at the PNP headquarters at Camp Crame. His absence from the office was noticed at around 6 a.m. the other day.

Yesterday Indama presented himself to a Quezon City judge, and said he wanted to be detained together with the other suspects in the bombing at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan. In this aspect the case was different from other escapes from Camp Crame in the past eight years. On June 19, 2002, Pentagon kidnap gang leader Faisal Marohombsar and two of his cohorts walked out of their detention area. He said in a radio interview the next day that the guard had been asleep. On July 14, 2003, while the prime minister of Australia was in Manila, Jemaah Islamiyah bomb maker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi and two Abu Sayyaf members also escaped from the Intelligence Group office at Camp Crame. The IG at the time was headed by Jesus Verzosa, now PNP chief, who quit his post amid an uproar over the escape.

Al-Ghozi, an Indonesian, was convicted of illegal possession of explosives and was accused of involvement in the Rizal Day 2000 bombings that killed 14 people in a Light Rail Transit coach in Manila and in other places in Makati. He and his fellow escapee Abdulmukim Ong Edris and Marohombsar would later be shot dead in alleged encounters with government forces.

They were not the only escapees from PNP headquarters. A notorious drug dealer also walked out of Camp Crame, while another detainee famously strolled past camp guards at the gate while still handcuffed to his cot.

Indama was a former driver of Akbar’s political rival, former Basilan Rep. Gerry Salapuddin. Indama’s testimony plays a crucial role in the prosecution of the bombing case. If he changes his mind against turning state witness, he should be indicted as a principal suspect in the bomb attack. Keeping him in custody should be a PNP priority. Turning state witness does not turn him into a free man, and he cannot walk out when he doesn’t like his place of detention. Any police custodian who does not know this and is remiss in his duty should be sacked.