THE Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed with finality the life sentence handed down by the lower court against five men for the ambush-killing of former Constabulary Col. Rolando Abadilla, former chief of the Metropolitan Command Intelligence and Security Group.

SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said the Court did not give weight to the claim of Senior Police Officer 2 Cesar Fortuna, Rameses de Jesus Calma, Leonardo Lumanog, Joel de Jesus and Augusto Santos, also known as “Abadilla 5,” that the inconsistencies in the testimonies of the prosecution’s witnesses warrant their acquittal in the case.

Marquez noted that the said inconsistencies are not enough for the Court to reverse the ruling of the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City, which found them guilty of the murder charge.

“The accused were saying that there were inconsistencies in the testimonies of the witnesses but these inaccuracies are not really fatal,” Marquez stressed.

Abadilla, according to witnesses accounts, was shot dead by the accused on June 13, 1996, while his car was stuck in a traffic on Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City. He was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital owing to multiple gunshot wounds in the body.

The Abadilla 5 denied any participation in the killing of the former police official, and claimed that they were tortured by their police custodians into admitting the crime.

The SC, however, said the Commission on Human Rights did not make any categorical finding of physical violence inflicted on the accused by police authorities during its investigation.

The SC held that the trial court was correct in giving full credence to the testimony of security guard Freddie Alejo, who witnessed the shooting incident.

Earlier, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the government will study the possibility of granting pardon to the Abadilla 5 in light of their insistence that they were innocent and that they were just tortured into admitting the crime.