7 MILF bombing suspects fall in Tondo raid

Police arrested yesterday seven alleged members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) suspected of planning retaliatory bombing attacks in Metro Manila.

National Capital Region Police Office chief Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco said the seven were among the 75 men rounded up at dawn on Isla Puting Bato in Tondo, Manila.

The seven were identified as Abdulbasit Malacaw, 33, the alleged leader of group; Ricky Mendoza, 26; Jimmy Salik, 27; Into Kamid, 60; Arib Malacaw, 40; Abdulwahid Mamuro, 38, and Romeo Romo, 39.

Western Police District director Chief Superintendent Pedro Bulaong said they applied for a search warrant on the basis of military reports that suspected MILF rebels had slipped into Tondo area and were planning retaliatory attacks against civilian targets.

Police plan to file charges against 10 of them, including the seven who were caught in possession of four kilograms of ammonium nitrate, a chemical primarily used as fertilizer, but commonly used by terrorists to make bombs.

Velasco said the seven were arrested following a month-long surveillance before a warrant for their arrest was issued by Manila Executive Judge Enrico Lazanas.

Velasco said the remaining three men among those arrested are being held on unrelated criminal cases while the 65 others were freed without charges.

"This showed the vigilance of our police forces in Metro Manila," Velasco told reporters.

Philippine National Police chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane said the arrests reflected badly on the MILF’s sincerity in the peace process.

"I do not have anything to say to them. There are efforts for a peace process but hindi naman sila nakikinig (they are not listening)," Ebdane said.

The group, however, denied involvement with the MILF, and accused the police of rounding them up without any court order.

Some Muslim leaders also chided the police for making the arrests without legal basis.

Amerol Ambiong, chairman of the Metro Manila Peace and Order Council, claimed the police would find no MILF member in the area.

"While most Muslims in Metro Manila have relatives who are MILF members, the (rebels) would likely be in Mindanao now," he said.

Ambiong said the MILF members in Metro Manila are not planning to carry out terror attacks but only trying to earn a living.

The arrests came just days after President Arroyo unleashed a major offensive against the MILF, which has been accused of carrying out deadly bombings and raids that left about 100 dead in Mindanao since March.

Government troops yesterday killed three MILF rebels, including a top rebel leader in a gunbattle near the town of Munai in Lanao del Norte.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero said slain rebel leader, Armida Sulaiman Luksadato, also known as Commander Syria, was among those who led attacks in the area.

"He was one of the several terrorist leaders we are pursuing and now he’s dead. The others should surrender peacefully because we will find them sooner or later," Lucero said.

The military said two other MILF rebels were killed in the attack, while two soldiers were wounded.

The fresh casualties bring to over 60 the number of MILF rebels killed since Saturday, when Mrs. Arroyo ordered "punitive assaults" against known terrorist cells "embedded" in Mindanao before departing to the United States for a state visit. - With AFP