ZAMBOANGA CITY/MANILA, 25 February 2005 — Officials said yesterday they thwarted planned attacks on an airport, malls, a church and US troops with the arrests of three Jemaah Islamiyah members who allegedly came to the Philippines to train local militants to make bombs.
The two Indonesians and a Malaysian were arrested in the southern port city of Zamboanga city in December along with a Filipino member of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group with bomb-making manuals, bomb parts and funds to be used for attacks, said Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes.
“We were able to foil an attempt to bring into the country terrorists with firearms, with training materials, with explosives, before they can do their thing,” Reyes told reporters as the men were presented to media in Manila.
Police intelligence chief Ismael Rafanan said the four — linked to the twin bombings in the southern port cities of General Santos and Davao, and third explosion in Manila on Feb, 14 — were nabbed in separate operations in Dec. 12, 2004, and that a fifth suspect was helping authorities track down other militants.
Police paraded the suspects — Indonesians Nasir Hamid and Mohamad Yusuf and Malaysian Ted Yolanda and alleged Abu Sayyaf member Muhair dela Merced — in handcuffs at the national police headquarters in Manila during a news conference.
In a show of defiance, dela Merced, a Muslim convert, shouted “Allahu Akbar,” while officials were briefing reporters about the arrests.
Rafanan said the Jemaah Islamiyah was coordinating terror activities in the southern Philippines using the Abu Sayyaf group and renegade members of the country’s largest separatist rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is currently negotiating peace with the government.
Authorities recovered bomb components, about $7,000 and at least two pistols from the four, who were located in part due to intelligence provided by Indonesia and Malaysia. While under surveillance, they were monitored meeting some Abu Sayyaf members, officials said.
Rafanan said the four, trained by the Jemaah Islamiya militants, in the southern province of Lanao del Sur, were not directly involved in the Valentine Day attacks, but had links with the bombers, two of them Gamal Baharan and Angelo Trinidad alias Abu Khalil, had already been arrested on Tuesday in a hideout in Manila.
The arrests are an indication of continuing collusion between foreign militants and local Muslim radicals.
They also rekindled concerns over the government’s limitations in dealing with terrorism and the need for the public to help guard against attacks.
“We couldn’t place an intelligence operative in every nook and corner of the country,” Rafanan said.
Officials said the duo were allegedly behind the deadly bombing of a passenger bus in Manila’s financial district of Makati, that killed 4 people and wounded over 100 others. Seven people were also killed in two bomb attacks in General Santos and Davao.
Philippine National Police chief Edgar Aglipay said they did not announce the arrest of the four because it may jeopardize the ongoing hunt for other terror suspects.
Militant groups said the presentation of the four were more of a publicity stunt to cover up for the failure of the authorities to prevent the Feb. 14 bombings.
Southern Philippines military chief Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza said the hunt for terrorists continue in many areas in the strife-torn region, where security forces were battling the Abu Sayyaf group and the communist New People’s Army rebels.
“The operation against the terrorists is not stopping. Our efforts in tracking them is going on and we are closely coordinating with other law enforcement agencies,” Braganza said.
