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Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Muslim leaders fear ‘bombers’ killing scripted
CEBU CITY -- As police gather more proof of two men's alleged involvement in a terrorist move, a leader of Cebu's Muslim community fears last Thursday's incident was "scripted."
Hadji Nashier Ismael, former chairman of the Metro Cebu Muslim Peace and Order Council, said the men identified as Ali Usop and Datu Niel Ulama did not look like Muslims.
He said all the Muslim leaders in Cebu went to the Eternal Memories Funeral Services to have a look at the two just to see if they were familiar to them.
Ismael said there were several mosques in Cebu and not one of the leaders saw Usop or Ulama enter their mosque.
Ismael pointed out that if they were indeed members of the Rajah Solaiman Revolutionary Movement (RSRM), whose members are firm believers in Balik Islam, they would have prayed in a mosque.
The Balik Islam ideology teaches that Spanish colonizers misled the country into embracing Christianity and that they were all originally believers in Islam.
Another concern Ismael pointed out were marks near their wrists, leading him to believe these marks were from handcuffs.
Scenario
Ismael wonders if the terrorist scenario was planned to create the impression that Cebu is not safe and not capable of hosting the Asean summit in December.
He said it was possible someone did not want the event to be held in Cebu.
Ismael also said that if the situation was analyzed, the manner in which the bomb was planted was rather "childish."
He said the RSRM is a well-funded organization and that the circumstances showed that the two were sloppy in their work.
By childish, he pointed out that the two left the bomb outside the mall instead of inside. He also noted that the two were just walking instead of having a getaway vehicle like a well-funded organization member should.
However, Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau Chief Pablo Labra II said information he received revealed that Usop and Ulama have pending cases with the Department of Justice for their alleged involvement in the Feb. 14, 2005 bombing in Manila.
He said they are 100 percent sure that the bomb they found at the entrance of SM City mall was the kind the RSRM makes.
Meanwhile, an autopsy report showed there were no signs that the two men killed in a shootout with the operatives of the Cebu City Police Office last Thursday night were shot at close range.
The scattered multiple injuries and the absence of "production of combustion" on the bodies of Usop and Ulama also indicated that the two were moving while engaging in the alleged shootout, Dr. Rene Cam, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)7 medico-legal officer who performed the autopsy told Sun.Star Cebu in a mobile phone interview.
Cam said both suffered multiple gunshot wounds -- Usop had eight wounds while Ulama sustained seven.
Both were not hit in the head but one of them, Cam said, was hit in the heart thrice.
Cam found cuts both in the left wrists of Usop and Ulama. These, however, were not injuries during the shootout but were post-mortem wounds, Cam said. Some of the wounds are also old ones that have started to scar.
Planned attacks
Usop and Ulama were killed near the Queen City Memorial Gardens on S. Soriano St. at the North Reclamation Area, several meters away from the mall.
Usop's fingerprint matched with the latent prints found on the defused bomb based on the test conducted by the PNP 7 Crime Laboratory.
Senior Superintendet Augusto Marquez Jr., chief of the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division, in a report over ABS-CBN TV Patrol Cebu, said the RSRM has been monitoring and trying to sow terrorist activities in Cebu since last year.
All their attempts, however, have been thwarted.
Marquez said the group would have targeted last December's Southeast Asian Games and the Sinulog 2006, including the Basilica del Sto. Niño.
He described last Thursday planting of the bomb as part of the group's mission.
Marquez also said that one of the personalities that are leading the group came from Cebu.
Sun.Star Cebu is withholding the name of the alleged leader pending verification.
PRO 7 Director Eduardo Gador said earlier Usop and Ulama were suspected members of the RSRM that has links to the Abu Sayyaf and the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah.
Labra also said Usop and Ulama were alleged hardcore members of RSRM.
‘Hurt’
Commenting on the complaints raised by the Muslim community in Cebu on the tagging of Usop and Ulama as "Muslims", Labra said, "We didn't say that they are, because we are careful about that. The sound (of their names) maybe but we didn't say that they are."
Ismael said they were "hurt" because it was immediately raised that the two suspected bombers were Muslims.
He assured the Cebuanos that the Muslim community in Cebu is very concerned for the peace and order that they organized their own peace and order council in 1995.
Last Sunday night, a man with a Muslim accent called up the Eternal Memories Funeral Services inquiring about the two men.
But when the security guard who answered the phone asked for the man's name, the caller quickly hung up.
According to manager Alice Rebalde, the man spoke Cebuano.
Rebalde said they were instructed by the police to immediately call the Homicide Section if claimants of the two men would arrive.
Police requested them not to release the bodies until investigators are able to talk to them.
Rebalde said that even without this instruction, their policy was to get the claimant's identification and find out how they are related before releasing bodies that were not immediately claimed.
She explained they could also get into trouble if they did not release the bodies to the lawful immediate family members. (MEA of Sun.Star Cebu)
(May 16, 2006 issue)
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