Suspected key planner of Davao wharf bombing nabbed

Combined police and military operatives arrested on Sunday the alleged key planner in the April 2 bombing of the Sasa wharf in Davao City which left 16 people dead and at least 59 others wounded.

The arrest of the suspect, whose identity was withheld, led to the conclusion that the bombing of the Davao wharf and the powerful bomb that ripped through the waiting shed of the Davao International Airport last March 4 were carried out by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) with the help of a regional Islamic group, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

Sources in the police and military intelligence disclosed to The STAR that the arrested suspect is a ranking leader of the MILF which planned both bombings.

Police are also hunting down five Indonesians who reportedly helped carry out the attack on a row of food stalls at the Sasa wharf.

Philippine National Police (PNP) director for intelligence Chief Superintendent Robert Delfin said the same suspects were involved in the bombing of a resort in Bali, Indonesia last Oct. 12 which left almost 200 people dead, about half of them Australians on holiday. The five Indonesians are suspected members of JI. They were identified only as Nasruddin, Sulaiman, Zulkifli, Haj Akhmad and Hamja.

Delfin said the five were monitored in Central Mindanao before the April 2 bombing of the Davao wharf.

"The information was relayed to us by foreign counterparts after the (April 2) blasts to help us in the investigation," Delfin said. "We received the report that Nasruddin was also involved in the Bali bombings."

Delfin made the disclosure a day after Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte tagged the JI as responsible for last week’s bombing.

The JI , a regional Islamic group linked by Western intelligence agencies to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, carried out the deadly bombings in Bali.

Delfin said the bombers, operating independently from the MILF but still part of the rebel organization, represented the JI terror cell in the Philippines.

He confirmed the suspicions of Duterte that the MILF’s special urban terrorist action group (Sutag) carried out the bomb attack. He said the five Indonesians had direct links with Sutag.

The information was further bolstered by reports that two of the five Indons were spotted on the outskirts of Davao City before the bombing, Delfin said.

Delfin disclosed the same group of suspects were identified by detained Indonesian Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, as the ones who helped him establish contacts with the MILF in 2001.

Delfin identified Sulaiman as the one who concealed a ton of explosives at the backyard of a mosque in General Santos City following Al-Ghozi’s arrest January last year.

Delfin also claimed Sutag is operating independently from the MILF but is closely affiliated with Muklis Yunos, leader of the MILF’s Special Operations Group tagged among those behind the Dec. 30, 2000 bombings in Metro Manila.

Delfin said the PNP is still awaiting the final results of the investigation of the local police with the help of the Australian police forensics team to determine if the Indonesian suspects were behind the wharf blast.

The Australian forensics team assisted in the investigation of the Bali bombing which led to the conclusion that the JI was involved.

"It will take us two to three days to come up with the final results," Delfin said. He also stressed the possibility that JI could launch further attacks.

Incoming Armed Forces chief Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya also confirmed the presence of the JI in Central Mindanao.

But so far, Abaya said, there is no concrete evidence linking the Islamic fundamentalist group to the Davao blasts.

Abaya stressed, however, indications that the MILF could be behind the bombings.

"The MILF leadership keeps on denying this (bombings and terrorism involvement). We know and they (MILF) know that these (suspects) are their followers," Abaya said.

Armed Forces spokesman and vice chief of staff Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia said they have no "corroborative" information that would link the MILF to the Sasa wharf bombing.

Garcia added they have no proof to link the JI or even the al-Qaeda to the bombings.