Three more arrested in hunt for RP bombers
Three more arrested in hunt for RP bombers
Agence France-Presse, General Santos, Philippines
Police made three more arrests on Wednesday and seized explosives in their hunt for the perpetrators of deadly weekend bombings which killed 15 in this bustling southern city.
The three Muslim men were nabbed in a pre-dawn raid on a house in General Santos where three bomb blasts on Sunday and Monday left 15 dead and wounded 60 others.
The house also served as an office for a Muslim cooperative, the Bangsa Moro (Muslim) Women's Association, regional police chief Senior Superintendent Bartolome Baluyot said.
Baluyot said they were trying to establish whether the three men had any links to Muslim rebel groups fighting the government in the south and possibly communist insurgents.
Two of those arrested, Abubakar Amil Hassan, 47 and Arsol Ginta, 31, were identified as members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest Muslim separatist group.
The third suspect, Jehjon Macalinsan, 18, admitted he had phoned in a fake bomb threat to a telecommunications company on Tuesday, Baluyot added.
Police were checking if the Bangsa Moro Women's Association was a front for the 12,500-strong MILF, which has forged a ceasefire pact with the government pending peace talks.
The phoned bomb threat had been traced to Macalinsan and the house had already been under surveillance by authorities.
Seized at the house were a 60mm mortar round, a pistol and documents from the MILF and the communist insurgent National Democratic Front (NDF) and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA.)
The mortar round was similar to the explosive used in the deadliest of three bomb blasts to hit General Santos City. The bomb exploded in front of a department store on Sunday and killed 15 people and wounded almost 60 others. Two other explosions took place on Sunday and Monday but caused no casualties.
Two Muslim men were Monday charged with the bombings. Both claim they are innocent.
A spokesman for the notorious Abu Sayyaf Muslim kidnapping group in a telephone call to a radio station, also claimed to have planted the bombs. Officials say this may have been a ploy to confuse their investigations.
A woman at the house, Abina Lumbawa, said the three men had been staying there for two months in exchange for acting as helpers.
She said the house served as the office of the Association of Free Nationalist Moros, a group affiliated with the New Nationalist Alliance (BAYAN), the country's main leftist organization.
BAYAN has frequently been accused of being a front for the communist insurgents.
The MILF and the NDF do not have a formal tie-up but are known to have a tactical alliance which allows commanders on the ground to work together against the government
Peace negotiations with the communists were called off last year after their guerrillas assassinated two congressmen.
The southern Philippines has been battered for decades by violent separatist rebellions, kidnappings and banditry spearheaded by the Abu Sayyaf Muslim armed group which has been linked by Manila to the al-Qaeda network of Saudi extremist Osama bin Laden.