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Thursday, March 06, 2003
Gov't junks Sayyaf claim on Davao attack; MILF men among suspects
DAVAO -- Security officials rejected Wednesday claims by the Abu Sayyaf group it was behind Tuesday's deadly bombing of the Davao airport but said several persons with links to the country largest Muslim rebel group had been arrested.
Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr. and Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said the bandit gang's statement bears scrutiny, adding it has been the practice of the gunmen to own responsibility for things they did not actually do.
Authorities tightened security in airports and other key installations across the country following the powerful blast in Davao that killed 23 people and injured 166 others.
Tensions remained high in the region after another bomb ripped through a department store in Cotabato City Wednesday, causing a small fire but no casualties, police said.
President Arroyo cancelled her Wednesday appointments to fly to Davao City, where she presided over a 30-minute meeting with police, military and local officials, offered white roses and lighted a candle at the scene of the bombing, condoled with the families of those who died, and visited the injured at the hospital.
She told a press conference before leaving for Cotabato City that she has appointed Mayor Rodrigo Duterte "crisis manager" in Regions 11 and 12.
Arroyo said as early as Tuesday night, shortly after the airport blast, she already instructed Duterte to already start making arrests.
"I declare here and now that justice will be done," she said in Davao City.
Suspects
Mayor Duterte announced in a separate interview that nine suspects had been arrested but refused to identify them or their affiliation.
Earlier, Lina admitted five of the suspects have been linked to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and are even included in the military's order of battle.
Both Lina and Reyes said they were not taking the Abu Sayyaf claim for the blast seriously, saying that Davao, the largest city and commercial capital of Mindanao, was not part of the group's terrain.
"We should not take that claim very seriously. They operate in another area," Reyes said after briefing Arroyo in Davao City.
Hamsiraji Sali, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group, told the local ABS-CBN television Wednesday that his group staged the airport bombing and warned of more attacks to cripple the economy.
Duterte said the nine suspects in the bombing were arrested in overnight joint police and military operations.
He added that what he thought at first to be rebellion-related atrocities had now degenerated into pure and simple terror activities.
The mayor believed all the atrocities happening within and outside the region were related. "They are just one group, similar crimes, similar modus operandi," he stressed.
US help
The Davao mayor, once staunchly against the deployment of American troops in the country, said he welcomes any help from the US that will hasten the solution of the crime.
Arroyo has ordered Duterte to "immediately identify and arrest the masterminds, conspirators, accessories, accomplices and all those who have anything to do with this criminal act."
But the President said she wants the country's security forces, not US troops, to go after the terrorists.
"When I talked with President Bush, he said they would help us in the way we wanted to be helped," Arroyo added.
Abu Sayyaf member Sali, who said the Davao bombing was not intended to maim or kill but to make a political point, claimed the device had gone off earlier than intended.
"It was their (the victims) bad luck to be there," he said.
The Abu Sayyaf had been classified a terrorist group by Washington for its alleged links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
The network's Southeast Asian chapter, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), is also cited as among suspects of the blast, the deadliest in the region since the bomb attack on the Indonesian island of Bali in October last year killed 202 people.
Network
Lina, however, said among those arrested were five members of the MILF.
But MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu was quick to deny that the arrested suspects were members of the rebel group.
He said the MILF was even prepared to help Manila find those responsible.
The Davao attack came amid a backdrop of increased Muslim guerrilla activity in the region ahead of a planned deployment of US anti-terror troops.
The blast was caused by a bomb hidden in a knapsack at a packed lounge outside the airport terminal, officials said.
Lina said the five MILF members were part of a "network of bombers," apparently referring to a series of suspected MILF bomb blasts in the south after the military overran an enclave of the group last month.
The military offensive left almost 200 people dead, most of them MILF fighters.
The 12,500-strong MILF has been waging a 25-year campaign to set up an Islamic state in Mindanao.
Security
Officials in Manila, meanwhile, said they were boosting security around oil depots, seaports and other vital installations in the capital and other major cities.
"We are bracing for and attending to all possibilities," National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said.
All ports of entry have also been placed on high alert for the possible entry of fleeing associates of alleged al-Qaeda brain Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, immigration and transport department officials said.
Sheikh Mohammed, who lived briefly in the Philippines in the mid-1990s, was arrested in Pakistan last weekend and is now in US custody.
Among the dead from the Davao airport attack was an American, the only foreign fatality so far identified. Three other Americans were among the injured. Sun.Star Davao/With AFP
Related stories:
Abu Sayyaf owns Davao airport blast
5 MILF men held as US offers to help track bombers
US national among 19 killed in Davao blast; mayor vows more arrests
US President condemns deadly RP bombing
Residents told to stay calm: GenSan mayor speaks from experience
Suspect in airport blast came by bus?
City in state of emergency |
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Davao mayor declares war on blast suspects