Tuesday, July 10, 2007 Police say Alcobar group behind bus attack in Koronadal
GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Authorities confirmed Monday that only one group perpetrated the series of bomb attacks on bus companies in Mindanao lately.
South Cotabato Police Director Robert Kiunisala said the suspects used the same cellular phone number in calling the management of Yellow Bus Line, Inc. in demanding for P2 million and the one used in contacting the Weena Bus Company.
Kiunisala identified the group behind the attacks on the bus companies as Alcobar whose motive is to extort protection money from the owners.
"The same cellular phone number was used by the suspects to call the management of Yellow Bus and Weena to demand protection money," the police officer said without giving the cellular phone number.
Kiunisala claimed that Alcobar demanded P2 million from Yellow Bus, a figure which the firm's operation manger Olimpio Par earlier did not confirm nor deny.
At least two sources, a company employee and a friend of the owner's son, said the extortion demand was also P2 million.
Weena Bus earlier confirmed that Alcobar demanded at least P2 million for protection money.
Kiunisala said intelligence agents are trying to determine whether the Alcobar group is composed of the dreaded Pentagon Gang, a notorious lawless group operating in Central Mindanao known for their kidnapping activities.
Pentagon is allegedly headed by Alonto Tahir, whom the military claimed to have killed in Maguindanao province three years ago.
But Maguindanao residents in the towns of Sultan sa Barongis and Salipada K. Pendatun, where Mr. Tahir was said to have been killed during a military bombardment, claimed that he was never killed and "in fact just in the vicinity."
Tahir, a former commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who was rescued by around 100 heavily armed men in a daring raid at this city's jail in 2001, is reportedly sick of diabetes.
"Maybe the Pentagon gang has changed their name to Alcobar. Our intelligence community is looking into this possibility," Kiunisala said.
The police officer said the bomb planted on the Yellow Bus fleet Saturday did not "intend to kill people."
"Our police and military bomb experts did not recover shrapnel like nails. In 10 meters, you cannot be killed," he added.
But Kiunisala said the explosive device contains half a pound of TNT or trinitrotoluene, a normal bomb-making component and that the bomb was detonated using a cellular phone.
Yellow Bus officials said the incident would not prompt the firm from stopping its service.
A YBL unit was bombed late Saturday afternoon in Koronadal City, no one was reported injured since passengers have just disembarked from the bus when the bomb went off.
Weena's buses in Cotabato City and Bansalan, Davao del Sur were also attacked last month, killing eight people and wounding more than a dozen others.
Yellow Bus is the largest transport operator in the Davao-General Santos-Koronadal route while Weena dominates the Davao-Cotabato road.(Sun.Star General Santos)
