Extortion eyed in bus blast

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines – One of the suspects in a deadly bus bombing in Maramag, Bukidnon last Tuesday is a member of the Al-Khobar extortion gang, local officials said.

Ten passengers were killed while more than 20 others were injured in the blast that ripped through a bus of the Rural Tours Mindanao Inc., (RTMI).

It was the second RTMI bus to be bombed in six weeks.

Suspect Macmod Manibpil reportedly hails from Mlang, North Cotabato near the Liguasan delta where extortionists and kidnappers have sought shelter.

Authorities have identified Manibpil as one of the suspects in the latest bus bombing in Maramag while the RTMI bus was on its way to Cagayan de Oro City.

Army and police intelligence sources in Central Mindanao, however, said Manibpil belongs to the Al-Khobar extortion gang that has been held responsible for the spate of bombings in the region from 2003 to 2010.

The police announced on Thursday that a Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) leader identified as Garnet Lintang and a certain Dawtin Gendang have been charged in connection with Tuesday’s bus bombing.

Security officials in Maguindanao and North Cotabato are convinced that a big extortion ring and not the BIFF was involved.

Abu Misry Mama, spokesman for the BIFF, had denied any involvement in the bus bombing.

He said the BIFF members have become convenient fall guys for all atrocities in the area.

Sources at the Bukidnon provincial police office, however, claimed that extortion could be the likely motive for the bombing in Maramag.

The RTMI management has confirmed having received demands for “protection money” from anonymous groups threatening to bomb the firm’s buses if they do not pay.

Manibpil was one of four ordnance experts of a Muslim group that escaped from the North Cotabato provincial jail in Kidapawan City after a rebel attack on the prison building on Feb. 2, 2007.

Another escapee, Datu Ali Sultan, was reportedly trained in making homemade bombs in Kandahar, Afghanistan in the 1990s, while the other escaped detainees were identified only as Guido and Mundos.