‘Too late to stop Al-Ghozi’

Indonesian terrorist Fathur Roman Al-Ghozi had a 12-hour headstart to go into hiding or get out of the country after his escape on Monday, despite claims made by the police that "action was immediately taken" to arrest him and his two Abu Sayyaf companions.

The Bureau of Immigration said yesterday it was informed of the mysterious escape only at about 4 p.m. on Monday. That was 12 hours since Al-Ghozi and two Abu Sayyaf terrorists, Abdul Mukim Edris and Merang Abante, sneaked out of their detention cells at the Intelligence Group compound at Camp Crame.

"Al-Ghozi had 12 hours to move to a comfortable place where he is least likely to be detected. But what is scary is that he could still be in Metro Manila planning another bomb attack," acting BI Commissioner Daniel Cueto told The STAR.

Military officials mapping out the possible escape route of Al-Ghozi, Edris and Abante said that the fugitives might use the "southern backdoor" to slip out of the country.

"Our southern backdoor is very open. Anybody can just go in and out. Though we have joint patrol operations with Malaysia and Indonesia, the area is too large relative to our capacity to monitor every incident in the area," Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) information officer, said.

The Army’s 1st and 6th Divisions have been ordered to watch seaports and airports from Sarangani, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu up to Balabac, Palawan. These areas are the nearest to Malaysia and Indonesia.

According to Lucero, Al-Ghozi has a mass base in Davao, Sarangani and General Santos City where many Indonesians reside.

Armed Forces Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Roy Kyamko, however, said that although the possibility was high that the fugitives would leave the country through Mindanao, the three could not reach the island that quickly.

"They have no means to reach the point immediately," Kyamko said.

Nevertheless, he said even local government units in Mindanao have been alerted to be on the lookout for the fleeing terrorists.

"The local government units have been alerted to have a tight watch within their community as these are no ordinary people," Kyamko said.

He added they are also monitoring the possible supporters of Al-Ghozi who might conduct attacks to divert the tracking forces.

For its part, the immigration bureau has placed pictures of the three fugitives on all immigration counters at Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the international airports in Laoag, Subic, Davao, Cebu and Zamboanga. It has also intensified monitoring of flights, especially those bound for Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Al-Ghozi, Edris and Abante, who are now classified by government authorities as "dangerous men," walked out of their detention cells at the intelligence unit compound inside Camp Crame on Monday, giving the government’s anti-terror campaign a "black eye."

Sources at Camp Crame said a huge amount of money changed hands in the escape of the three most wanted terrorists.

Superintendent Fritz Galvan, chief of the PNP-IG Foreign Intelligence Liaison Office (FILO) and was directly responsible for the security of the three terrorists, was sacked from his post on Monday night.

Earlier, PNP-IG director Chief Superintendent Jesus Versoza tendered his voluntary resignation to pave the way for an impartial probe.

Galvan and his entire personnel were placed under investigation for possible collusion in the escape of Al-Ghozi and his companions.

"We are eyeing two theories in this incident," one of the probers told The STAR.

First, he said, Al-Ghozi could have long plotted his escape by befriending his guards and was able to have the two padlock keys to his cell duplicated. And second, somebody (not his jailers) could have assisted Al-Ghozi in his escape.

The first theory was bolstered yesterday following the discovery that one of the three sets of keys used to lock up Al-Ghozi’s cell had been changed. For this, a key custodian of the PNP-IG detention cell, Superintendent Carlito Natanauan, was also placed under investigation.

"In order to accomplish these two theories," the prober said, "a huge amount of money changed hands and somebody escorted them out of their cells."

Meanwhile, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) director Chief Superintendent Eduardo Matillano conducted an inspection on Al-Ghozi’s detention cell yesterday and confirmed that the terrorists made their escape passing through the two main steel doors of their detention cell.

Mark Ghumbali, another Abu Sayyaf detainee who was left behind, said he reported his cellmates’ disappearance during an 8:00 a.m. inspection. But the jailers, whom he did not identify, allegedly only took the matter in stride.

The PNP-IG FILO officer also reportedly notified his immediate superior of the escape only at 11 a.m.

"We are seeing here a possible angle of connivance," Matillano said. — With Roel Pareño, Sandy Araneta, Mike Frialde, Jaime Laude