Five Abus own up to Zamboanga bombings

President Arroyo paraded before the media yesterday five suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf who police said had admitted responsibility for the deadly bombings in Zamboanga City in the past three weeks.

Officials said the men, who were arrested Tuesday in two raids near Zamboanga City, admitted taking part in the bombings of two shopping malls last Thursday and in a blast at a Roman Catholic shrine Sunday night.

"Without being detailed, I think it is also important to reveal that they were virtually caught in the act of preparing for the next bombing," Mrs. Arroyo said during the nationally televised news conference.

"It’s good we got them, but that does not mean we have to relax," Zamboanga Mayor Ma. Clara Lobregat, who accompanied police in turning over the suspects to the President, told reporters.

The suspects, aged between 18 and 21, were flown to Villamor Air Base in Pasay City so Mrs. Arroyo could present them to the media. The handcuffed suspects wore bright yellow police detainee t-shirts and sported name tags.

The suspects were identified as Adbuljamin Hassanul Habi, Madznul Laja, Pas Ismael, Raja Sumayaga and Buyung Bungkag. The latter two were from Zamboanga del Norte while the rest were from Basilan, an Abu Sayyaf stronghold.

Chief Superintendent Eduardo Matillano, director of the Philippine National Police (PNP)’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said the men are expected to face multiple charges of murder and frustrated murder.

The suspected claimed before investigators they were acting on orders by Abu Sulaiman, one of the top Abu Sayyaf leaders.

"We have established that Abu Sayyaf is connected to Jemaah Islamiyah and al-Qaeda. These suspects are Abu Sayyaf," Matillano said, referring to the Oct. 17 shopping mall blasts and Sunday night’s explosion at the Fort Pilar shrine. "There was admission on their part that they were responsible for the bombing."

Chief Superintendent Simeon Dizon, regional police commander, said the arrested men also told police that their colleagues were behind an Oct. 2 blast in in Malagutay district in Zamboanga that killed an American Green Beret and three Filipino civilians.

He said police seized documents that bolstered the assessment that the men were planning more attacks.

PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane said police have not established any foreign connection to the group so far. He said the arrests came after police were tipped off about the suspects’ hideout in the village of Guiwan near Zamboanga.

"We received information about them and on the basis of this information, we raided two safehouses. We caught the four suspects in the first house and in the second house we caught the fifth," Matillano said.

Police said they found a Shop-O-Rama baggage claim tag at the suspects’ hideout. Both bombs went off in the baggage counters of the two adjacent shopping malls, altogether killing seven people and wounding 162 others.

Also confiscated from the men were two caliber .45 automatics, a diagram on making car bombs, nails, camouflage uniforms, a bottle of gasoline and a receipt for the bicycle pedicab believed used in the shrine bombing.

Witnesses have told the Zamboanga City police they saw at least one of the detained suspects park the pedicab rigged with a bomb that went off in the shrine blast.

Other items confiscated as evidence include a crucifix and religious pamphlets that police said were used for the shrine bombing operation, pocket-size copies of the Koran, car registration papers, a bicycle tool, a map of Zamboanga and unspecified white powder in plastic bags that police were testing as a suspected component in bomb-making.

The items were laid out on a table at a conference room at Villamor Air Base.

Zamboanga officials said two men and a woman rented the two-storey apartment on Oct. 9.

Days later, neighbors noticed men – between 18 and 21 years old – frequenting the apartment at night, they said. Group members were seen tinkering with cellular phones, alarm clocks and soft drink and plastic bottles filled with gasoline.

There has been speculation that a bus bombing attack in Quezon City’s Balintawak district last Friday may have been triggered using a cell phone. Two people were killed and at least 19 others wounded.

The owner of the boarding house where the five had stayed said they had told him they were students whose parents were traders in Manila.

One of the suspects "even bragged and told the other boarders that they were at Shop-O-Rama where the bomb went off," the landlord said.

Some lawmakers have criticized the police and the military for failing to thwart the bombing spree. Yesterday, opposition Sen. Luisa Ejercito delivered a privilege speech urging military intelligence chief Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus to resign.

Zamboanga has been a target for attacks after it served as a hub of a joint US-Philippine military campaign earlier this year against the Abu Sayyaf, which Washington and Manila have linked to the al-Qaeda terror network of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.

The group is considered a terrorist organization by Washington for the kidnapping and murder of US nationals last year.

The Abu Sayyaf, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and the Indonesia-based al-Qaeda affiliate Jemaah Islamiyah are the main suspects in the three bombings. The MILF denied any involvement.

Founded in 1977, the estimated 12,000-strong rebel group earlier denied links to al-Qaeda or Jemaah Islamiyah.

Jemaah Islamiyah is believed responsible for the Friday night bus bombing. Police said bomb fragments indicated that the explosive was exactly the same type used in the Rizal Day bombings, which officials also blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah.

The Dec. 30, 2000, blasts – which hit a passenger train, a bus and three other targets – killed 22 people and left more than 100 others wounded.

Jemaah Islamiyah is also suspected in the Oct. 12 nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia, that killed more than 180 people and wounded 300, mostly Australian tourists.

Justice Secretary Perez said one Indonesian allegedly involved in the Rizal Day bombings, now serving a 17-year prison sentence for illegal possession of explosives, is a ranking member of Jemaah Islamiyah.

"It has come out that Agus Dwikarna is one of the highest officers of Jemaah Islamiyah," Perez told reporters yesterday.

Hesaid there had been pressure from some Indonesian officials for Dwikarna’s release but the government refused because it had evidence against him.

He also said some Cabinet members had suggested that Dwikarna be freed to improve Philippine relations with Indonesia. "I told them, ‘Why are we worried about good relations if this is the man who is planning to bomb us’," Perez recalled. — With reports from Roel Pareño, Sammy Santos, Benjie Villa, AFP