POLICE investigators will include Juamil “Mameng” Biyaw as a respondent in the kidnapping charges filed against Indanan Mayor Alvarez Isnaji and his son Haider.

The decision to include Biyaw in the charges was decided during Wednesday’s case conference in Camp Crame, Quezon City, by the investigators, victims and their lawyers.

Biyaw, an assistant of Mindanao State University professor Octavio Dinampo, who was kidnapped last month in Sulu along with television journalist Ces Drilon and her crew, was earlier declared by the National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) as among its witnesses.

The case officer, Senior Supt. Joel Napoleon Coronel, said the investigators would indict Biyaw, who is still in the custody of the CIDG, based on his statement that it was he who led the news crew on their way to interview Abu Sayyaf leader Radullan Sahiron.

“By his admission…that he was the one who guided the ABS-CBN news team to Indanan, Sulu, and was the one who arranged the meeting...we would include him also as a suspect in the kidnap-for-ransom [case],” he said.

Coronel said it would be up to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to determine if Biyaw should be drafted as a state witness.

Drilon and her crew were freed by the Abu Sayyaf after the alleged payment of a total of P15 million, which was allegedly skimmed by the Isnajis.

Drilon said she believed they were kidnapped after a “traitor,” whom she hinted was Biyaw, collaborated with the abductors.

This is the reason she and even Dinampo protested when the police took in Biyaw and announced that he would be used as a witness in the case against the Isnajis.

Dinampo said his assistant should be among those charged and not considered a witness.

The National Police earlier said that it was also looking into the possibility of including Dinampo as a suspect, a statement that came out after the professor issued a supplemental affidavit clearing the Isnajis of the charges.

A panel of DOJ prosecutors that is holding preliminary investigation on the charges would resolve on Thursday if the charges should be filed in court against the Isnajis.

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POLICE investigators will include Juamil “Mameng” Biyaw as a respondent in the kidnapping charges filed against Indanan Mayor Alvarez Isnaji and his son Haider.

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