DAVAO/COTABATO CITY, 12 April 2003 — One of the five arrested suspects in the two recent bombings in Davao City has confessed to having carried the deadly explosives in the March 4 bombing of the Davao airport, investigators claimed yesterday.
But the 17-year-old youth, whose real name was being withheld as he is considered a minor, denied being a member of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the main Muslim group fighting for an Islamic state in the southern Philippines.
The young man executed an extra-judicial confession on Thursday in which he claimed to have been the one who placed the backpack containing the explosives on an empty bench in the crowded waiting shed of the airport.
He was arrested in Cotabato City on Tuesday, along with Tohame Bagundang and Esmael Akmad, both of Kabuntalan, Maguindanao, and Ismael Mamalangkas of Malagapas, Cotabato City and Ting Idar, of Matampay, Sultan Kudarat.
All five were charged yesterday with multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder for the airport blast and the Sasa wharf bombing on April 2.
He said he was not aware the backpack contained a bomb and said he was promised a new t-shirt in return for accomplishing the task. He also wanted to see Davao City.
Top MILF leaders, including Salamat Hashim, Murad Ebrahim, Ghazali Jaafar and Eid Kabalu, were also included in the charges, along with more than 100 people, 30 of whom were identified only as John Does.
MILF spokesman Kabalu laughed off the complaint when sought for comment.
“Why were we implicated? Those five were not members of the MILF,” he said. “This is pure harassment.”
Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte said the inclusion of the MILF in the charges was based on the admission of Mamalangkas and Akmad that they were active members of the MILF.
Investigators also claimed that the MILF had used Bagundang and Sammy in its bombing activities.
“This is a break. The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group has done a splendid job. But I am sad because not all of the respondents are in our custody,” Duterte told the reporters here.
But in his affidavit, the young man said he was never a member of the MILF nor did he belong to the rebel group’s Special Urban Terrorist Action Group (SUTAG) as alleged by investigators.
He said Bagundang, Akmad, Mamalangkas and Idar had convinced him to go with them to Davao City. He said he was taken by the group in a passenger jeepney to what he later learned was the airport. Akmad gave him the backpack and instructed him to place it in the waiting shed and leave right away. He rushed back to the jeepney where the other suspects were waiting. A few minutes later, he said he heard a loud explosion.
After eating, he said he and the suspects went into a grocery store to buy some items but there was no T-shirt.
The five then returned to Cotabato City.
Also yesterday, state prosecutor Augusto Gonzales moved for the dismissal of the murder charges against Tirso Sudang and Undongan Sudang, both barangay (neighborhood) officials of Kabacan town, North Cotabato province, the first set of suspects in the airport bombing.
Gonzales said there was insufficient evidence against the Sudangs who were arrested when they went to claim the body of a relative, 18-year-old Montasser, who died in the airport blast.
Police and military authorities said the Sudangs plotted the airport bombing and had sent Montasser to carry out the deed. The Sudangs said Montasser was at the airport to fetch a cousin who was returning from Egypt.
North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Pi?ol said he would talk to Duterte and request the Sudangs’ release and also arrange for them to be compensated for their unjust arrest.
