Cebu trader charged for selling explosives to Rizal Day bombers

CEBU CITY (AFP) – State prosecutors have filed charges against a businessman who allegedly sold more than a ton of explosives to suspected Islamic militants who used them in a deadly Rizal Day 2000 bomb attacks in Metro Manila, an official said yesterday.

Antonio Reyes, who remains at large, is accused of selling more than 1,000 kilograms of explosives, six rolls of detonating cord and three boxes of blasting caps in November 2000 to a man arrested in connection with the Dec. 30, 2000 attack, State Prosecutor Roberto Lao said.

Police said meanwhile they have asked state prosecutors to indict 11 people in connection with a series of bomb attacks in Zamboanga City that killed 12 people last month.

Five suspects are in police custody. The others, including three top leaders of the militant Islamist Abu Sayyaf, remain at large, said regional police Superintendent Marvin Bolabola.

Prosecutors charge that Reyes sold explosives to Cusain Ramos, who told police he bought the explosives on behalf of Indonesian Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, sentenced to 17 years in prison in Manila earlier this year for possession of illegal explosives.

Reyes is known in this city as a middleman for mining companies purchasing blasting materials from the Cebu suburb of Talisay, which has an illegal but officially tolerated backyard demolition equipment industry.

Al-Ghozi has since issued written testimony that he acquired the explosives from Ramos as part of a plot by Islamic militants led by the fugitive Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, for bombing attacks across Southeast Asia.

Using information obtained from Ramos, Philippine authorities later recovered 1.2 tons of explosive materials in the southern city of General Santos in January. The evidence was used to support al-Ghozi’s conviction.

Ramos told police he is a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a separatist group operating in the southern Philippines.

Philippine police intelligence Chief Superintendent Jaime Caringal, meanwhile, said over local radio here Friday that authorities are investigating Reyes’ suspected role in other recent terrorist attacks in the Philippines.

"It is highly possible that he is not only involved in the procurement of explosives. He could be part of the terrorist attacks even in the planning stage," he said.

Some of the explosives allegedly sold by Reyes to Ramos could have found their way out of the country, Lao said.