Highly reliable sources at the Department of Justice confirmed yesterday what both the military and Abu Sayyaf have been saying — that the supposed ranking Muslim rebel presented to President Arroyo last Saturday was not "Dr. Abu Pula."
Government witnesses who were to identify the notorious Abu Sayyaf leader said the young Mark Bolkerin Gumbahale, 21, was not the guy with a P5-million bounty on his head. The suspect was all set to be indicted for the Rizal Day bombings in 2000.
"One of the witnesses identified the arrested suspect as Abu Tagalog and not Dr. Abu Pula," the source, who is privy to the probe, said. Abu Tagalog is just a regular bandit, he added.
Agents of the Intelligence Group of the Philippine National Police apparently misled Mrs. Arroyo on the fake Dr. Abu Pula’s designation in the bandit group by tipping her off that Gumbahale is a leader, has a multimillion-peso prize on his head and was among the most wanted.
Presenting the wrong suspects in a parade to media has not been unusual after the President launched a campaign against criminal syndicates that have been driving away investors from the country.
But Malacañang dismissed claims that Mrs. Arroyo was given the wrong information.
"We stand by it," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.
Justice Secretary Hernando Perez was also quick to defend his boss again. "If there’s any mistake, I think we should not blame the President because the presentation was made to her," he told reporters in a chance interview.
Gumbahale was arrested last Thursday in Maharlika Village, a Muslim enclave, and was presented to journalists at Camp Crame last Saturday with no less than Mrs. Arroyo as special guest.
Mrs. Arroyo said Gumbahale was the same as Abu Pula, who has a P5-million bounty on his head.
"He is not the main man. He is not the notorious Abu Pula, whose real name is Umbra Jumdail," a senior intelligence official in Zamboanga City said upon seeing Gumbahale’s picture.
"He is nothing, not even a sub-leader. Gumbahale may just be an ordinary Abu Sayyaf member. The real Dr. Abu Pula must be laughing now at the President and the police," the official said.
But police claimed the young Abu Sayyaf member is a firearms expert — "an armorer" — and has admitted to several high-profile crimes committed by the group, like the Sipadan kidnapping, the 2000 Rizal Day bombings and the hostage-taking of students and teachers in Lamitan.
Doubts on the identity of the captured Abu Sayyaf member were raised because his face did not match up with a photo of an apparently older Dr. Abu Pula in a poster the military distributed in May 2001. – With Marichu Villanueva