Two Muslims own Dec. 30 bombings

Two of the three Muslim suspects under the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) have confessed to the bombings in Metro Manila last Dec. 30 that killed 22 people and wounded nearly 100 others.

NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco identified the leader of the three as Bassal Diamlan but refused to identify the two others who owned up to the five bombings that rocked five busy places in Manila, Quezon City, Makati City and Parañaque City that day.

Wycoco quoted the two suspects as saying that they staged the bomb attacks to "make a statement" against deposed President Joseph Estrada who was then on trial after being impeached in November.

"According to them, they want to make a statement against the Estrada administration," Wycoco said

But the NBI is not ruling out the possibility that the bombers had other motives.

"It might be that their handlers wanted it to appear that way. There might be another objective," he added. "We have traced and identified two of his (Diamlan’s) co-perpetrators and we have interviewed all of them and they have owned up to the bombings, except for Diamlan," Wycoco told reporters during a forum at the Century Park Sheraton hotel in Malate, Manila.

The NBI chief revealed that Diamlan "had a string of cases of similar nature; he exploded a bomb in one of the shopping malls in Iligan, in some public places in Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato and Maguindanao."

Wycoco ruled out any participation of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the bomb explosions inside a train coach in Manila, in front of a hotel in Makati, at Plaza Ferguson in Manila, inside a passenger bus in Quezon City and near an airport fuel depot in Parañaque City.

"At this point, we are sure they are not MILF," Wycoco said. "They said they are not MILF, they were not ordered by the MILF and they had some Christian companions with them when they did it."

Wycoco said two of the three admitted they prepared and exploded the bombs but the NBI chief stressed that the case is not closed.

"This is not yet solved in the sense that we are still finding out if they have other linkages," he said, adding that he could not confirm nor deny if the group was linked with the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF).

The government earlier withdrew the murder and multiple murder charges against seven MILF leaders, led by its chairman Hashim Salamat, in view of its offer to talk peace with Muslim secessionist rebels.

Only the charges against Ismael Abbas in a Pasay City court were retained, according to State Prosecutor Menardo Corpuz, because the "charges against him are very strong."

A witness said he saw Abbas get off a car that later exploded in a parking lot at the cargo terminal of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Police, then under former police chief Director General Panfilo Lacson, arrested Abbas in front of his home on Jan. 3 .

Military intelligence agents also detained several suspects in raid on a Muslim community in Tandang Sora, Quezon City shortly after Abbas’ arrest but they were later released after questioning.

Lacson subsequently claimed the case was solved when he blamed the bomb attacks on the MILF purportedly as a retaliation for the government’s takeover of vital MILF camps in Mindanao.

Lacson’s successor, Deputy Director General Leandro Mendoza, however, claimed last month that the evidence cited by Lacson left "too many loose ends that did not jibe."