Security beefed up around GenSan jail

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Jail authorities have tightened security within the vicinity of the General Santos City jail following reports that newly trained operatives of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) are planning to spring out three bombing suspects detained there as part of their "test missions."

Jail officials said Chief Superintendent Danilo Mangila, Central Mindanao police director, has informed them about fresh intelligence reports that operatives of JI, an Indonesian-based terror group, are drawing up plans to safely rescue bombing suspects Norodin Mangelen, Pedro Hamsa and Ali Salipada.

The city jail is located in Purok Lanton, Barangay Apopong, a few kilometers away from the city proper.

The three suspects were arrested in connection with the bomb explosion in the city’s public market last Dec. 12 and the blast at the Davao City airport on March 4, 2003.

Reports said a joint police-military team arrested Mangelen in his hideout in Maguindanao last month. His capture led to the arrest of Hamsa and Salipada here.   

Mangila said additional troops have been deployed in the General Santos City jail to augment its security force.

In November 2000, about 50 heavily armed men, believed to be members of a "lost command" of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), swooped down on the jail and rescued Tahir Alonto, leader of the notorious Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang.

Alonto was believed killed in the Liguasan Marsh in Maguindanao three years later when the military bombed his hideout there.

The beefed-up security also came on the heels of last Sunday’s bombing of a ferry in Lamitan, Basilan, which wounded at least 30 people.