DAVAO CITY, 17 April 2003 — Only one group was behind the two deadly bomb attacks on the Davao airport on March 4 and the Sasa wharf on April 2, officials said yesterday.
Justice Undersecretary Jose C. Calida told reporters that the five suspects now under government custody have confessed that the brains behind the bombing of the airport waiting shed are also behind the explosion at the seaport.
“The same group is behind the (two bombings),” Calida said.
Sr. Supt. Eric Javier, spokesman of the task force investigating the bombings, also said the suspects they have arrested have admitted participation in the two attacks.
Forty people, which include officials of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), have been charged with multiple murder before a local court for the the seaport bombing that killed 16 people and injured 55.
Facing charges for the airport blast which killed 22 people and injured 115 others are Esmael Akmad, Esmael Mamalangkas alias Tokwa, Tohami Bagundang, Ting Idar and a 17-year-old boy who, together with Tohami, executed an extra-judicial confession admitting participation in the blast.
Officials said the suspects were hired for up to 50,000 pesos but they received only 500 pesos. On the other hand, two initial suspects, cousins Terso and Undungan Sudang, were released Monday after 40 days in detention for lack of sufficient evidence.
The Sudangs of Kabacan town in North Cotabato were held by police right after the airport blast, in which a relative of theirs was killed. Police earlier thought the dead relative was a “suicide bomber” but local officials of Kabacan, including the mayor, said the man was at the airport with 18 relatives to meet his wife who was coming home on vacation from Egypt.
North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Pi?ol had said he was pushing for compensation for the Sudangs who were detained just because they were Muslims.
Meanwhile, the Davao city police and the Department of Social Welfare of Development (DSWD) are at loggerheads over a 17-year-old suspect, one of those arrested in Cotabato City last week in connection with the bombings.
The suspect is under police custody, allegedly on orders of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, after presenting his extra-judicial confession admitting he placed the bomb at the airport waiting shed on orders of Akmad and Bagundang.
Bagundang, in his own extra-judicial confession, admitted he was part of an eight-man cell that orchestrated the attacks.
Conspiring with him in the attacks were Balulao, Akmad, Adar, Jimboy Dadtungan, Bayan Sanjun, Mamalangkas and the 17-year-old suspect, according to Bagundang.
