Terrorist bombing plots foiled — PNP

The Philippine National Police (PNP) said yesterday it had thwarted three possible terror attacks, including one in which President Arroyo may have been the target.

Three persons were killed and seven others arrested in separate police operations against suspected terrorists in Davao del Sur, Tarlac and Batangas before dawn yesterday.

The arrests came as two more bombs went off in Cotabato City and Parang, Maguindanao. No one was injured in the incidents.

PNP spokesman Senior Superintendent Leonardo Espina said the operations foiled what could have been a plot to sow terror during the commemoration of Labor Day.

In Darong, Davao del Sur, a house used to manufacture bombs was raided just hours before President Arroyo arrived in Davao City as part of her Labor Day provincial visits.

Police stormed the house in Darong at 3 a.m., resulting in a firefight that claimed the lives of two bomb makers and the arrest of three others.

Arrested were Edris Bido, 42; Datu Salam Paglas, 30; and Danny Cadelon, 30, a former integree of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). The slain suspects – a 30-year-old and a 15-year-old youth – have not been identified as of last night.

The group affiliation of the potential bombers was still being determined, police said.

Seized from the house were two handguns, two pipe bombs, a grenade, ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, ingredients for explosives and a road map of Davao City with possible targets marked.

Also found were cassette tapes with the name "Hashim Salamat," the chairman of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Police Inspector Querubin Manalang said if the bombs have not been intercepted, they could have dealt more major damage.

"The pipe bombs were big. When I saw them, I was thinking what devastation they could cause again, how many lives would be lost," he said.

It was not clear if the men arrested were linked to any of the bomb blasts that rocked several cities in Mindanao last month. The deadliest of the blasts, in General Santos City on April 21, killed 15 people and wounded at least 60 others.

The military said two bombs exploded late Tuesday – first near the home of the provincial official in Cotabato City and the other at the Polloc port in nearby Parang town.

Police said a bomb, fashioned from combustible powder packed in a small box with a mosquito coil, was placed in front of the residence of Maguindanao agriculturist Salik Panalunsong.

"Whoever was responsible had basic knowledge of improvised explosives," said Capt. Alunan Glang, commanding officer of the Army’s 6th Explosives Ordnance Detachment.

The bomb fragments are now being examined to determine if they are similar to those used in the previous bomb attacks.

Authorities in Parang, a coastal town in Maguindanao, said the bomb that exploded in Polloc port was strapped to one of the concrete columns underneath a docking ramp.

They said those responsible could have approached the port using a small boat, strapped the bomb below the docking site and casually paddled away in the dark.

Polloc port is located near Camp S.K. Pendatun, the police headquarters of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) command.

In Tarlac City, a Muslim student with possible links to the al-Qaeda terror network was killed while another was arrested after authorities engaged a group of gunmen in brief firefight at a bus terminal in Barangay San Nicolas shortly after midnight.

Tarlac City police chief Superintendent Toto Bayangos said the slain suspect was identified only as "Khalid" by his captured companion. Now under police custody and undergoing tactical interrogation is Omar Mayumo aka Dexter, 20, of Pasong Tamo, Makati City.

Their five companions are now the subject of a manhunt by the Tarlac police.

Bayangos said the encounter with the seven suspected terrorists came after a month-long surveillance arising from a tip that the group was hatching a terror plot in time for Labor Day.

At around 10 p.m. Tuesday, joint elements from the Tarlac provincial office and the city police station were dispatched to the bus terminal after receiving information from an asset that the group would be meeting there.

At midnight, the police teams, led by SPO3 Pascual de los Reyes and SPO3 Joselito Nelmida spotted the seven suspects and approached them. Immediately after De los Reyes and his team introduced themselves, they were met with a volley of gunfire.

The lawmen fired back, forcing the suspects to run in different directions. Khalid was killed in the brief firefight while Mayumo was cornered by pursuing officers.

Police recovered two homemade revolvers, four fragmentation grenades and seven pamphlets on Islam.

New terrorist cell revealed

Police said the arrested suspect admitted to belonging to a terrorist group called "Haraka," led by Saudi national Sheik Hamod, currently a resident of Barangay Mal-ong in Anda, Pangasinan.

Authorities said they believe that Haraka is one of numerous global cells of al-Qaeda, the terror network of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.

Mayumo said he was recruited into Haraka by his cousin, Jamil Camacho, also of Pasong Tamo, Makati City last Jan. 23.

Police said Mayumo and Khalid studied in Islamic schools which they believe are being used by al-Qaeda as part of operations in Southeast Asia.

The suspect admitted that he received an order last April 30 to go to Tarlac City to prepare for the launching of terror activities. He and his companions were planning to commandeer tricycles to be used in lobbing grenades in the city’s shopping malls and public markets on Labor Day.

Tarlac City has three malls: Magic Star along the school belt of Romulo Boulevard; Metrotown Mall along MacArthur Highway; and the Cojuangco-owned Plaza Luisita Mall in Barangay San Miguel.

Bayangos said he has asked mall owners to beef up their security even as officers have been dispatched to various commercial establishments and other public places in the city.

"We do not want to be alarmist, but this incident has compelled the police force to take a preventive stand rather than a reactive position," he said.

Also being secured is Crow Valley in Capas town, one of the sites being used by US and Filipino soldiers for the Balikatan 02-2 military exercises.

In Sto. Tomas, Batangas, police arrested three suspected members of a revolutionary group when they yielded explosives and firearms during a routine inspection at a checkpoint Tuesday night.

Provincial director Senior Superintendent Rolando Lorenzo identified the suspects as Noel Acbang, 32, of Nabua, Camarines Sur; Michael de Guia, 18, of Del Gallego, Camarines Sur; and Mark Anthony Merced, 19, of Oas, Albay.

The three men were aboard an RJ Transit bus enroute to Manila from Bicol when the vehicle stopped at a checkpoint along the Maharlika Highway in Barangay San Miguel at around 11 p.m.

Lorenzo said police grew suspicious after the three men tried to hide a box under the seat during a routine check inside the bus. The suspects were arrested after police found a kilo of blasting powder, blasting cords, two revolvers and several bullets.

Police are still confirming the group affiliation of the three men, although sources said they belonged to an armed revolutionary group.

The three men were charged with illegal possession of explosives and are currently detained at the Sto. Tomas municipal jail. – With John Unson, Ric Sapnu, Arnell Ozaeta