Bomb scare: MNLF suspect nabbed in Payatas raid

Police and military agents conducted a dawn raid on a slum area in Quezon City yesterday and arrested a possible suspect in the series of bomb scares that hit Metro Manila last week, the Philippine National Police (PNP) announced yesterday.

PNP spokesman Senior Superintendent Leonardo Espina identified the suspect as Eleno Akmad Umpar, 20, a native of Marawi City, and a suspected member of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

Umpar was arrested by a team from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) that raided a compound of Muslim traders on San Miguel street in Payatas district, Quezon City.

Espina clarified, however, that the police are still conducting a background check on Umpar, who was caught with an unlicensed caliber .38 revolver and is being held for illegal possession of firearms.

"We are still trying to determine his possible link in the spate of bomb scares," Espina said, adding that nine other individuals were also held for questioning during the raid but were later released after proper identification.

Central Police District (CPD) intelligence unit head Chief Inspector Anthony Rodolfo said the raid was aimed at 11 individuals who were allegedly involved in the bomb scares last week.

"We received information that the people involved came from this place and so we conducted a surveillance operation," Rodolfo told ABS-CBN television.

"We launched an action at dawn but unfortunately we got only one out of our 11 targets," he added.

CPD director Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Tor clarified, however, that they are not discounting the possibility that Umpar was connected to any extremist group.

Police failed to confirm if Umpar matched any of the three composite sketches which the authorities gathered from witnesses and security video footage from one of the places where the bombs were planted.

At the same time, Espina said the police doubt the credibility of the Indigenous People’s Federal State Army (IPFSA) which claimed responsibility for the bombs which were found in at least eight places in Metro Manila but none of which was designed to explode.

Espina also dismissed as a "copy cat" crime, the bomb that was planted but defused by police along the expressway in Carmona, Cavite the other day.

The PNP, he said, suspect that breakaway groups from the MNLF or Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) may be behind the bomb scares and are only using IPFSA as a cover so that it could pursue peace talks with the government.

Police also said on Monday that the shadowy rightist group Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa (RAM) and the People’s Patriotic Movement (PPM) may also be involved in the bomb scares.

RAM denies involvement

A RAM spokesman denied yesterday any involvement in the recent spate of bomb scares supposedly instigated by an obscure group demanding a shift to a federal system of government.

"The RAM vehemently and categorically denies any involvement in any bombing, terrorist of destabilization plot," RAM spokesperson Col. Reynaldo Samaco said in a statement.

Samaco said RAM has pursued non-violent, peaceful and democratic options to pursue its political program since signing a peace accord with the government in 1995.

He also said the RAM, which was involved in the people power uprisings in 1986 and 2001, has been busy cleansing its ranks of some elements whose actions run counter to the group’s principles.

"Since its participation in EDSA II in affirmation of its commitment to what is good for our people, RAM has been preoccupied with consolidating and ideologically strengthening its ranks.

"This has resulted in expunging from within some elements whose actions have run counter to the basic principle which the organization has espoused since its founding and in re-educating those who may have gone astray," the statement read.

Samaco explained that RAM has also conducted dialogues with groups like the PPM but only to "attain a broad consensus to forestall any future violent or extra-constitutional events which the RAM now firmly believes to be anathema to our constitutional order and democratic way of life." – With Christina Mendez, Mike Frialde