Sunday, October 28, 2007 25 suspects in Kidapawan twin explosions charged By Malu Cadelina Manar
KIDAPAWAN CITY -– Police filed murder and frustrated murder charges against 25 suspects believed to be involved in the October 5 twin explosions that killed an eight-year-old girl and injured 36 others.
Police said the suspects are local contacts of a big terror group operating in Central Mindanao.
Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) – North Cotabato Chief Marcelo Pintac and City Police Director Leo Ajero filed the charges before the Kidapawan City Prosecution Office.
Ajero said the complaint was based on the testimonies of at least five witnesses gathered by the authorities.
Abdul Basit Usman, believed to be a foreign-trained bomber and one of the leaders of a terror group operating in southwest Mindanao, was identified by one of the witnesses as behind the twin blasts. But his name was not included in the charge sheet, according to Pintac.
"It's up to the Prosecution whether to include or not Usman's name in the complaint sheet," explained Pintac.
Usman was also tagged as behind the October 10, 2006 bombing in nearby Makilala town in North Cotabato that killed eight people and injured several others.
One of the witnesses has also identified two fugitives that escaped -- along with 40 others, last February 2, 2007 at the North Cotabato provincial jail, as behind the recent blasts.
They were identified as Muhammad Nur Hassan and Macmod Manibpil, both residents of a Moro-dominated village here, which were convicted of multiple murder with multiple frustrated murder in connection with the 2003 bombing in Kidapawan City.
Hassan, according to intelligence reports, was trained in bomb making in one of the Moro rebel camps in Liguasan marsh in Maguindanao.
The filing of the charges was done a day after the city mayor called for a City Peace and Order Council (CPOC) meeting to discuss terror-related issues, including the reports they received from a foreign intelligence agency.
The report, according to Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco, has cited Kidapawan City in North Cotabato as among the key cities in southern Philippines included as targets in the terror attacks, which would be launched anytime.
"This is not something that we must just set aside. So we have to prepare and secure our city from any eventuality," said Gantuangco.
Gantuangco has already ordered the local PNP to strengthen the city's intelligence network by "hardening the target."
To "harden" the target, he said he already requested for additional deployment of police and Army personnel in some strategic areas in the city, including Barangay Nuangan, a village here being frequented allegedly by suspected bombers.
In fact, according to reports, the bomb suspect identified as Badrudin Guiasilon who was arrested in Tacurong City on August this year is a resident of Barangay Nuangan.
Guiasilon, during his arrest, has tipped police and military intelligence agents that two local operatives of the Indonesia-based militant Jemaah Islamiya (JI), one of them a foreign-trained bomber, were behind the recent blasts in key cities in Central Mindanao.
Guiasilon identified a certain Toliah whose base is in Cotabato City and a certain Tongan Fatima, a local JI trained abroad for bomb making, as the ones behind the explosions that rocked Central Mindanao since May this year.
Toliah, according to Guiasilon, has set up a base in Cotabato City and is operating in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm), especially in Cotabato City, Maguindanao and Shariff Kabungsuwan provinces.
The military earlier claimed Guiasilon has confessed being a member of the Special Operations Group of the MILF.
