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Thursday, May 18, 2006
2 slain Cebu 'bombers' positive of burns
CEBU CITY -- Disclosing the presence of an alleged terrorist group in Cebu was not meant to create panic but to make the public aware of its existence and be vigilant about it.
"Let us be vigilant, but we should not be paralyzed by this," said Police Regional Office Director Eduardo Gador Wednesday.
The police earlier said the two slain men who allegedly planted a bomb outside SM City mall were members of the terrorist group Rajah Solaiman Movement. The group's alleged leader was identified as Dino Amor Rosalejos-Pareja, who grew up and studied in Cebu.
Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 found Ali Usop and Datu Niel Ulama positive of gunpowder burns, disproving speculations that the police shot them dead when they were unarmed.
Usop and Ulama were pursued after they allegedly left a bomb in one of the entrances of SM City at the North Reclamation Area last May 11, shortly before the mall closed at 9 p.m.
Scars
NBI 7 medico-legal officer Dr. Rene Cam said over ABS-CBN TV Patrol Cebu that the scars in the wrist and forearms of the two were old so there is no truth to the allegations that they were in a handcuffed when they were shot.
A 23-year-old Maranao, meanwhile, was picked up for questioning because he looked like Pareja.
The man (name withheld) was picked up by the Maritime police around 11 a.m. Wednesday after a security guard detailed in Pier 4 called up the police for assistance about a man who looked like Pareja.
The man was later turned over to the Mobile Patrol Group of the Cebu City Police Office, which took him to the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau (CIIB) for questioning.
Interviewed by reporters inside the CIIB office, the man said he is from Marinaut, Marawi City and has been living with his parents in Barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu-City for more than a year.
Release
He said it is unfair for him to be picked up by the police just because he resembles Pareja.
Unlike Pareja, who reached college, the man said his highest educational attainment was only up to grade three.
He said he does not know how to read and write.
He said he was at the pier area because he wanted to take a vessel for Ozamiz City to visit his siblings.
Because the police have no reason to hold him, the man was released Wednesday afternoon.
During a press conference Wednesday, Gador also said the man who called up the Eternal Funeral Services last Sunday, where the bodies of Usop and Ulama are, was Pareja.
Gador said they learned about this because of the "compilation of information" relayed by the intelligence community to the police.
He said Pareja left Cebu immediately after making the call to the funeral parlor.
Gador said Pareja, who is also known as Kahlil Pareja, has long been wanted by the authorities for his alleged involvement in the bombing incidents in the country.
Police said Cebu is being eyed as a target of terrorist activities because it is hosting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in December. (JST/AIV of Sun.Star Cebu)
(May 18, 2006 issue)
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