Military hunts down 5 aliens

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — The military is hunting down five foreigners, with Middle Eastern features, who reportedly arrived in Central Mindanao about a week ago.

Army intelligence sources have identified the five aliens but declined to reveal them pending further verification with the Bureau of Immigration in Manila.

One of the sources said they have a photo of the five foreigners meeting with local leaders, one of them a popular politician.

Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan, chairman of the Provincial Peace and Order Council, said he has ordered the provincial police to help the military monitor the movements of the five foreigners, said to have arrived via the Zamboanga peninsula.

Army Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said all of their intelligence units in Central Mindanao have been ordered to help track down the five foreigners.

"There have been persistent reports that these people met with certain leaders in Maguindanao and surrounding areas. We are now validating all the information about them, their identities and their purpose for coming here," Ando said.

The arrival of the five foreigners was followed by a bomb attack on a gasoline station in Shariff Aguak, the capital town of Maguindanao, last Saturday. Four people were badly injured in the blast.

The bomb, fashioned from a live 60-mm mortar shell rigged with a battery-operated blasting device, was left beside a gas pump of a Petron service station owned by Ampatuan’s son.

Hours later, explosives experts safely defused a bomb also left in a gasoline station in Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat, only about 15 kilometers away from Shariff Aguak.

Investigators said the bomb was also fashioned from a live mortar projectile with a time-delayed blasting device.

Ampatuan, known for his hardline policy against lawless elements, said he is ready to offer a reward for any information that would lead to the arrest of those involved in last Saturday’s bombing.

The military said the bombing could still be a part of the seemingly continuing retaliation against the governor’s iron-fisted policy in dealing with local secessionist forces.

Ampatuan was himself ambushed thrice by suspected Moro rebels in different parts of the province last year.

A mortar attack also marred the wedding last April 8 of Ampatuan’s son inside the tightly guarded, 32-hectare complex of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao here. Among the wedding guests were Sen. Robert Barbers and other government dignitaries from Manila.

Eid Kabalu, spokesman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, has denied any involvement of the MILF in last Saturday’s bombing in Shariff Aguak.