General Santos City bomber escapes

A suspected bomber charged with murder is on the loose again, and his hobbies include extortion and bomb-making.

Abdulbasit Usman, 35, the principal suspect in the April 21 bombing of the Fitmart shopping center in General Santos City that killed 15 people and wounded 60 others, escaped from police custody on Wednesday.

The report detailing Usman’s escape reached Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters at Camp Crame only yesterday.

Central Mindanao police director Chief Superintendent Jose Dalumpines blamed Usman’s escape on security lapses on the part of Superintendent Willie Dangane, the acting police director of Saranggani province.

Dangane is also the regional special operations group (SOG) chief in the province and was Usman’s custodian.

Usman is facing murder charges for the Fitmart bombing, which was part of an extortion scheme. Prior to, and immediately after, the Fitmart bombing, Usman sent letters to the proprietors of local business establishments, threatening to bomb their offices unless they paid him large sums of cash. Usman signed the letters using his alias, Abu Muslim al-Ghazie.

The escaped suspect is a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and was charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives after his arrest in June in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat.

Usman has also been identified as a member of the Abu Muslim group, a local gang with ties to Abu Sayyaf Islamists.

Intelligence reports said Usman is the mastermind of the May and June 2000 bomb attacks on the General Santos City Hall, the city’s international fishport, Gaisano Mall and several banks in the downtown area. He was trained to build and use explosives in Indonesia, possibly by the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group, police said.

Arrested terrorist Ustadz Noor Muhammad Umog, alias Abu Muslim al-Ghazie, said in his sworn statements to the police that he hired Usman to manufacture, set up and detonate the bomb at Fitmart.

Means of escape

Reports reaching Camp Crame yesterday said Usman escaped while washing clothes behind the barracks of the 1206th Provincial Police Mobile Group (PMG) in Barangay Kawas before noon Wednesday.

Usman’s escape, Dalumpines said, is "the result of laxity on the part of (Usman’s) custodian." Dalumpines ordered a thorough investigation into the incident to determine who is liable for Usman’s escape. He has also ordered Dangane to re-arrest Usman.

When asked how Usman escaped, Dangane refused to comment. Dangane told reporters he has already submitted his report to Dalumpines. "It is up to him to decide on this case," he said.

Neither Dalumpines nor Dangane said why they kept Usman’s escape from the public, despite the fact that the incident could affect national security.

Because of Usman’s escape and the time that lapsed between the incident and the Central Mindanao police office’s report on the matter to PNP headquarters, PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said heads will roll.

Ebdane has ordered Dalumpines to immediately conduct an investigation into the incident. "Several policemne in Saranggani are now the subjects of an ivestigation and whoever will be found remiss in the performance of their duties will be meted the corresponding punishments," an irked Ebdane said.

Never jailed

Despite the gravity of the charges filed against him, Usman was never put behind bars.

Instead he was detained at the barracks of the 1206th Provincial Police Mobile Group (PPMG) – without handcuffs or other means of restraint.

While awaiting a commitment order for his transfer to the Saranggani provincial jail, Usman was put in the custody of the Saranggani police headquarters in Barangay Kawas in Alabel town.

Dalumpines said this was the arrangement they made for keeping Usman in police custody while they await pending amendments to the charges filed against the suspected bomber.

Authorities at Camp Crame, on the other hand, said Usman’s continued detention at the Saranggani police headquarters was due to the lack of a commitment order from the court for his transfer to the Saranggani jail.

Reliable sources said Usman’s family offered the suspect’s custodians P25,000 to keep Usman out of jail.

The same sources said Usman’s family has insisted that the authorities put Usman under the Witness Protection Program (WPP) of the Department of Justice (DOJ) after Usman identified other terrorists believe to be involved in the bombings for which Usman is charged.

Information provided by Usman led to the arrest of suspected Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist Uskar Makawata last August in a safe house in Barangay Tambler.

Usman told police Makawata was responsible for manufacturing the bomb used in the Fitmart blast.

"The family wanted to protect Usman from any harm," the sources said, adding that Usman’s elder brother, Ustadz Muhaliden Usman, went missing on May 7 after he was picked up by police operatives in Barangay Glamang, Polombok town.

Usman’s relatives, the sources said, "feel that Muhaliden was salvaged (summarily executed) and that something they do not want happening to Abdulbasit."

Usman’s escape is not the first time a criminal considered "highly dangerous" by the police has escaped from police custody. Earlier this year, Pentagon kidnap gang leader Faisal Marohombsar slipped out of the custody of his heavily armed guards at the fortified anti-kidnapping detention cell within the Camp Crame compound.

Marohombsar was killed several days later in an encounter in Cavite provice by a joint military and police force hunting him down after he kidnapped a little girl and her nanny.

Another escapee is suspected big-time drug lord Henry Tan, who disappeared from the detention cell of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) inside Camp Crame. Tan is still at large.