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Sunday, May 25, 2003
2 suspects in Koronadal blast fall
By Edwin G. Espejo
COTABATO -- Two alleged suspects in the May 10 bombing in Koronadal City, which killed at least 10 people and injured 40 others, were arrested separately by combined elements of the police and military in Midsayap on Friday.
Police were able to seize an M1 Garand rifle, several sets of camouflage uniforms, including reportedly a mobile phone unit from the two suspects, who both insisted on denying any involvement in the bombing incident.
Julie Mangadta, 42, and Tayuan Dimaloloy, 38, were arrested on Friday near the town of Midsayap in North Cotabato and were being interrogated, local police chief Eduardo Marquez told reporters.
Mangadta was an ex-field commander of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who had earlier surrendered to the government to become a farmer. Dimaloloy was also an ex-MILF guerrilla.
Police said the two had played a role in the May 10 bombing of a market in the southern city of Koronadal, the latest such attack blamed on Muslim militants since March.
The two were now being interrogated, Marquez said, without giving details of the evidence authorities had against them.
The MILF has denied being involved in terrorist attacks, but both the military and police have linked them to a spate of bombings and raids which have left nearly 100 people dead in the past three months.
President Gloria Arroyo called on the MILF leadership to surrender "the terrorists among them" and she launched a massive artillery and air assault against rebel positions in the south last week before embarking on an official visit to the United States.
Arroyo later secured a pledge from US President George W. Bush to help boost the Philippine military's capabilities as he accorded Manila full military ally status.
Meanwhile, evidence of terrorist activities by the Muslim Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) separatist group may be presented in an upcoming meeting of Islamic foreign ministers in Iran, a senior aide to President Arroyo said Saturday.
Malacaņang considered it "very significant" that the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) invited Filipino foreign minister Blas Ople to the plenary sessions next week, Arroyo's chief of staff Rigoberto Tiglao told reporters.
Apart from pressing the government's request to be granted observer status in the 57-nation OIC, Ople is also expected to brief his counterparts on the Arroyo government's efforts to bring peace to troubled southern Mindanao Island, Tiglao said.
"He will detail everything that we are doing to really take care of our Muslim brothers, which is the main interest of the OIC," Tiglao said. "This is unprecedented that Secretary Ople has been invited."
But Ople is also prepared to present evidence that the MILF has been engaged in terrorism if the OIC foreign ministers asked him to do so, he stressed.
"Only if asked, Secretary Ople can present," Tiglao said, adding that the OIC alone can decide which topics could be included in the agenda.
The influential pan-Islamic body has been closely monitoring peace talks between the MILF and the Philippine government, which have been in limbo amid a spate of deadly bombings and raids blamed on the rebels that have left around 100 dead since March.
Arroyo last week launched punitive air and artillery strikes against the MILF and took up her case against the group with US President George W. Bush during a state visit.
Military southern command spokesman Major General Roy Kyamko said last Sunday that at least 77 rebels were killed, 14 wounded and 97 surrendered in the weeklong offensive.
The figure was based on body counts and intelligence reports from the field, contradicting MILF denials of casualties, Kyamko said.
He said at least 11 soldiers were killed, two others were missing in action and about 22 more were wounded. Sun.Star General Santos with AFP
(May 25, 2003 issue)
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