Lawmakers and other sectors have reacted with skepticism to government claims that Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi was killed in a shootout with police at a road checkpoint near Pigkawayan town in North Cotabato late Sunday.
The allegations were fueled by claims of residents at the scene that they only heard at most two gunshots at the time when Al-Ghozi was supposedly shooting it out with the lawmen.
Al-Ghozi, a confessed member of the Southeast Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), escaped from the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters at Camp Crame last July 14. His remains were repatriated to Indonesia yesterday.
Mrs. Arroyo remained defiant. "I stand by the operational report of the authorities on this case," she said.
The President made the statement a day after she flew to General Santos City where she personally inspected the remains of Al-Ghozi and received the post-operation report of PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. detailing the supposed shootout.
"Al-Ghozi was a key domino in the ring of transnational terrorist conspiracies. His death reinforces the gains reaped by the capture of Hambali in Thailand and the recent conviction of the terrorist who bombed the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta," Mrs. Arroyo said.
Police operatives and the military killed Al-Ghozi on the first anniversary of the nightclub bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali — an attack blamed on JI, which has been linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
Opposition lawmakers and various sectors voiced suspicions that Al-Ghozi had long been in military custody and was executed as part of a government plan to impress Bush about the anti-terrorism efforts of the Philippines.
Some quarters also suspected that Al-Ghozi was killed to prevent him from revealing alleged police complicity in his escape.
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel said: "It looks like Al-Ghozi and others before him were silenced to prevent them from spilling the beans on the authorities who made their escape possible."
The opposition lawmakers also questioned the timing of Al-Ghozi’s death, just days before Bush’s visit to the Philippines on Saturday.
The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) claimed Al-Ghozi’s death "reads like an awfully crafted script. The timing is just too perfect." The group said the killing would be a "nice gift to give US President George W. Bush."
North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol said his constituents claimed to have heard no fighting despite police accounts that Al-Ghozi had been involved in a shootout with his pursuers.
"There were only two shots heard. There was no firefight," Piñol said.
Mrs. Arroyo hinted her disappointment with such claims. "The important thing is that we are steadily moving forward together with our allies in the region in neutralizing the key leaders of the JI (Jemaah Islamiyah)," she said.
"We are moving effectively to check terror in concert with our neighbors. This (Al-Ghozi’s death) reduces the weight of terrorist threats across the broad range of targets across Southeast Asia."
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said that after a van carrying Al-Ghozi was halted for running through a roadblock, he jumped out of the vehicle clutching a grenade while his accomplices escaped.
"The troops tried to incapacitate him and shot him in the arms. When he attempted to remove the pin on the grenade, the troops shot him in the chest," said Army Brig. Gen. Agustin Demaala.
AFP chief Gen. Narciso Abaya told reporters yesterday any queries over the issue of "neutralization" of Al-Ghozi should be directed to the PNP.
"I think I should not comment on that (killing of Al-Ghozi), General Ebdane has already (spoken)...and his men were responsible for the neutralization of Al-Ghozi," Abaya said.
A senior police official, however, explained the pursuit operations on Al-Ghozi were intentionally kept under wraps from the military and some police units to prevent compromising operations.
The source said on several occasions, the PNP hunters had to deal with some people with links to the military during backdoor negotiations for the Indonesian fugitive to be turned over to police authorities.
The source said Omar Opik Lasal, one of two suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits who escaped with Al-Ghozi from their detention cell in Camp Crame last July 14, is working as a spy for the 34th Military Intelligence Company of the Army’s First Tabak Division.
Lasal, the source said, played a key role in tracking down and neutralizing Al-Ghozi and another Abu Sayyaf member, Abdulmukim Edris.
"This explains why he (Lasal) is still alive. If he is not working with the military people whom we suspect to be the real handlers of Al-Ghozi, he could have been dead by now like Edris," the source said.
When the PNP arrested Lasal in Isabela, Basilan last May, the source said some people, including military officials, came to Camp Crame to intercede for his release.
Because of the string of kidnapping cases he is facing in Basilan, the source said Lasal was not freed to his patrons in the province.
Lasal earlier claimed it was easy for them to escape from Crame that day. He denied some police and military officials facilitated their escape.
The escape caused a national embarrassment since it occurred while Australian Prime Minister John Howard was in Manila meeting Mrs. Arroyo for talks on counter-terrorism measures and to promise aid to fight it.
Lawmakers called for the resignation of Ebdane but Mrs. Arroyo prevailed and designated the PNP chief to personally head a task force to hunt Al-Ghozi.
The manhunt went on for three months until the Indonesian fugitive was killed last Sunday.
Afghanistan-trained Al-Ghozi was sentenced to 17 years in prison last year for illegally acquiring 1.2 tons of explosives.
He later submitted a sworn statement to another court owning up to the Light Railway Transit (LRT) bombing in Manila on December 2000, a car bomb attack outside the Jakarta home of the Philippine Ambassador Leonides Caday in August 2000, as well as a JI plot to bomb targets in Singapore.
Security officials warned yesterday the JI could mount retaliatory attacks over Al-Ghozi’s death and the death sentences handed down to JI militants convicted of the Bali bombing.
"We cannot afford to relax in light of the state of terrorism in the region and in the world," National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said.
"Instead of relaxing we should heighten our alert," he said. — with Jaime Laude, AFP