MANILA, Philippines—The suspect-turned-state-witness in last year’s bombing at the House of Representatives was unhampered when he casually walked out of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-National Capital Region (CIDG-NCR) building in Camp Crame at around 4 a.m. on Monday.

“Nobody stopped me even when I reached the main gate and until I got into a taxi and went to my cousin’s house in Fairview,” Ikram Indama told the Philippine Daily Inquirer when he was presented to the media by Senior Supt. Magtanggol Gatdula at the Quezon City Police District headquarters Tuesday afternoon.

Indama said he left police custody because he wanted out of the government’s witness protection program.

“I’m being pressured to be a state witness. I don’t want to be a state witness,” he told reporters in a hastily called news conference.

He did not answer when asked who was pressuring him.

Earlier in the day, at a little past noon, Indama and his lawyer Alberto Din appeared at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 83, surprising the staff of Judge Ralph Lee.

Indama was wearing grey jogging pants, a white shirt and slippers when he was presented to the media.

He said that when he disappeared on Monday, he had just come from the office of then CIDG-NCR head Supt. Ericsson Velasquez, where he said he usually stayed at night.

He also said he no longer wanted to be under the witness protection program and would rather be jailed.

Indama is now being held at Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City, following a court order by Judge Lee.

Indama told the Inquirer that it was his own decision to give up after a day of hiding: “I don’t want to be a wanted man.”

He said he was aware that he had again become a suspect in the Nov. 13, 2007, bombing but that it was “okay” with him because he was “innocent.”

No inkling

In an interview, Judge Lee said neither he nor his staff had an inkling that Indama would surrender to the court.

“In fact, he even came ahead of me,” Lee said. “I was out of the office when my clerk of court called me on my cell phone and told me that Indama was in the office.”

The court staff said Indama arrived with his lawyer at around 12:30 p.m.

“He looked normal; he looked pretty relaxed and cool when I saw him with his lawyer,” Lee noted.

The judge said he did not talk to Indama but acted on Din’s request for Indama to be transferred to the Metro Manila District Jail in Camp Bagong Diwa.

“I didn’t talk to him; I didn’t interview him. Some people were already interviewing him at that time,” Lee said.

The court also issued a commitment order Tuesday directing Gatdula, the QCPD director, to facilitate Indama’s transfer to Camp Bagong Diwa.

The court staff told the Inquirer that Indama stayed at the court for around 30 minutes, after which he was escorted by SWAT members to the police headquarters in Camp Caringal.

Lee recalled that on Monday, he received a letter reportedly from Indama pleading to be transferred to another detention cell.

“The letter is to be treated as is, a letter, as the other parties were not notified of it. The court cannot hear the same,” Lee said.

In the two-page letter written in Filipino, Indama asked Lee to transfer him to Camp Bagong Diwa and away from the CIDG, citing maltreatment and forced testimonies.

“I want to get out of here so I can move and think by myself, and not just follow the dictates of the police and the camp of Gov. Jum Akbar and other people,” the letter read.

Indama said he escaped from the CIDG not to run away from the case but so that the court would hear his plea of being transferred to another detention cell, and “so I can reveal the whole truth about this case.”

He said his sworn statements signed while at the CIDG were untrue and fabricated by his interrogators.

“It’s not true that I was involved in the bombing at the Batasan Complex on Nov 13, 2007. I was merely forced by the police to admit to it, and to sign the narration prepared by the police,” the letter read.

“They hurt me, so I was forced to sign the narration that I did not understand and that is not true,” it read.

No involvement

Indama also claimed that former Rep. Gerry Salapudin, Bayan Judda, Caidar Aunal, Adham Kusain, Jang Hataman, Jim Hataman and Mujiv Hataman were not involved in the Batasan blast.

“I was forced by the Akbars to admit to the bombing and to implicate Congressman Salapuddin and others,” he said.

Indama also informed the judge that he did not want to be represented anymore by Andres Manuel Jr. He said it was the Akbars and the police who had hired the lawyer.

Lee said he would call Indama to the witness stand to ask the latter if he still wanted to be a witness in the case.

Bonding

Months of “bonding” forged a level of trust between Indama and his guards, and this ease led to his escape early on Monday.

Indama’s three custodians have admitted to a security lapse, said the new CIDG-NCR chief, Supt. Isagani Nerez.

“They accept full responsibility because they saw their lapses … They were confident that Indama would not leave,” Nerez told the Inquirer.

Nerez assumed his post mere hours after Indama left his cell.

Indama’s guards admitted the security lapse in affidavits they submitted in relation to the police probe of the oversight.

Indama was confined in a holding room at the CIDG-NCR’s ground floor for 11 months, from his arrest after the explosion until he was granted state protection as a witness. With a report from Tarra Quismundo