Convicted are 10 members of the ‘Maute’ terrorist group who have been identified as behind the kidnapping of 6 sawmill workers in Lanao del Sur 5 years ago where two of the victims were subsequently beheaded.
In a ruling dated August 24, 2021, Judge Marivic C. Vitor, presiding judge, Branch 266, handed down the verdict of ‘reclusion perpetua’ (life sentence) without benefit of parole against the following:
Ominta ‘Farhana’ Romato Maute; Dr Russel Langi Salic; TJ Tagdaya Macabalang @Abu Tufael; Musali Mustafa @Mus/Abu Hurayra; Wendell Apostol Facturan @Muraimin; Mausan Abdullah Mamasapano; Zack Haron Villanueva Lopez; Sohaylie Mohammad Cader; Mashory Abdul Gamama; and, Jomar Ibrahim Labay.
Five members of the group, Mustapha, Facturan, Mamasapano, Lopez and Macabalang, were convicted by Judge Vitor last September 29, 2020, for the deadly bombing of the Davao Night Market along Roxas Avenue that took place on September 2, 2016. The blast claimed the lives of 15 people while at least 69 more were wounded.
Ominta, based on government documents, is the ‘matriarch’ of the Maute Group, which was founded by two of her sons, Abdullah and Omar, in 2012, as ‘Dawlah Islamiya.’ She was arrested on June 9, 2017 at a Maute ‘safehouse’ in Masiu, Lanao Del Sur.