Refke, who is in his 20s and claims to be an Indonesian, was formally presented by President Arroyo yesterday to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for prosecution, three weeks after his capture in Cotabato City.
The military said that on interrogation, Refke admitted he is the finance and liaison officer of the JI cell in Mindanao.
The suspected JI leader is now under the custody of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) for violation of immigration laws.
Mrs. Arroyo told a news conference that Refke stayed on in the country even after many of his companions returned to Indonesia.
"Reports have it that a large number of his cohorts in training have returned to Indonesia, but he stayed here to become the moneybag of the JI in Mindanao," she said.
Mrs. Arroyo said Refke was trained by Fathur Roman Al-Ghozi, a fugitive Indonesian terrorist shot dead by policemen on Oct. 12, three months after he escaped from detention at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters where he had been serving a 17-year term for illegally acquiring explosives.
"Their curriculum: murder tactics, weapons to sow widespread fear and panic, explosives, among others," Mrs. Arroyo said.
The President said Refke’s accomplices - estimated to number about 30 - escaped when military and police intelligence operatives raided a suspected JI safehouse in Cotabato City last Sunday.
But, she said, "government operatives are pouring into Mindanao for the manhunt that will not relent until all these fugitives are accounted for."
"The terrorists are falling one by one. This reduces the weight of terrorist threat across the broad range of targets in our country and across Southeast Asia," Mrs. Arroyo said.
Refke was arrested at a hotel in Cotabato City on Oct. 2. His interrogation led to a follow-up raid on the suspected JI hideout in Cotabato on Sunday that turned up bomb-making equipment and instructions related to biological weapons, though no such weapons were found.
Military sources added Refke, who goes by the aliases Izza Kufoman, Omar Kanacan and Abu Obadiah, entered the Philippines in August 1998 to undergo terrorist training.
When a somber-looking Refke was presented before the DOJ, he was handcuffed and wearing an orange detainee’s shirt. He made no comment on the accusations.
Justice Secretary Simeon Datumanong said the police and military have yet to file charges of illegal possession of explosives against Refke since he is still under investigation.
"He was overstaying and undocumented. And he has been found in possession of materials used to manufacture bombs and devices," he said.
Datumanong said the DOJ prosecutors will still wait for the filing of a formal complaint from the police and military. "The other possible violations are still being looked into by (the) authorities," he said.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina admitted the only case that can be lodged against Refke is his alleged violation of immigration laws.
"The PNP is completing its investigations on these matters. So far, the evidence available is that he is raising funds, he (Refke) is the conduit for funds for bombing operations in the country," he said.
The military, for its part, said the capture of Refke and his admitting to be the finance officer of the JI cell in the country resulted in the group’s disarray.
"This news (of Refke’s arrest) has already spread to his companions and we feel that the group is now in disarray which might lead his companions to return to Indonesia," military spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero said.
Quoting AFP deputy chief of staff for intelligence Maj. Gen. Pedro Cabuay, Lucero added some of the JI terrorists are still hiding in central Mindanao.
"There is no reason to worry about the presence of JI in Metro Manila because our information at central Mindanao (is that Refke’s) companions are presently hiding," Lucero said.
As to reports that some of the JI operatives sought sanctuary in areas controlled by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Lucero said he expects the Muslim guerrilla group to turn them over to the government.
"There is already a joint communiqué with the MILF and the government on this matter," he said.
Lucero said they are still interrogating Refke on his possible involvement in the December 2000 bombings in Metro Manila.
He said the military is taking note that Refke is trained in counter-interrogation.
Lucero said the military is focusing on the possibility that Refke is protecting the top JI cell leader in the country when he told interrogators that their leader returned to Indonesia.
"We are coordinating with our counterparts, particularly with Indonesia, so we are not solely depending our assessment from the statements of Refke. We are comparing notes with our neighbors," Lucero said.
Senior Superintendent Romeo Ricardo, PNP anti-terrorism Task Force Sanglahi chief, said the arrest of Refke and the presence of JI operatives in Mindanao bolstered earlier reports that the JI has been using Mindanao as a training ground for their recruits.
Ricardo said Mindanao is part of the "Mantique 3" of the JI network, which also covers Malaysia and Indonesia. "In the Mantique 3 organizational setup, the Philippines or Mindanao is basically the training site for JI. So far that is their only activity here," he said.
PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said there is no cause for alarm on the possible retaliatory attacks from the JI with the arrest of Refke.
"The activities of the JI are concentrated in Mindanao and insofar as Metro Manila and Luzon are concerned, there are no indicators that they operate here. And they are on the run," he said.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Immigration announced the arrest of a Jornadian suspected of being an al-Qaeda operative and close associate of Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law.
Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo said Mahmoud Afif Abdeljalil, 36, was arrested in Zamboanga city on Sept. 25 for violating immigration laws.
He was being interrogated and she did not rule out criminal charges against him.
Domingo described Abdeljalil as the "point man" of Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, a Saudi businessman married to one of Bin Laden’s sisters.
Officials have accused Khalifa of helping establish al-Qaeda’s terror cell in the Philippines in the late 1980s and early 1990s, using a charity organization to funnel money to the Abu Sayyaf bandits.
After Khalifa left the Philippines in 1994, Abdeljalil took over his businesses in Mindanao, Domingo said.
She cited a military intelligence report that Abdeljalil was in constant touch with Khalifa, whose whereabouts are still unknown.
Khalifa was identified by US justice authorities as a threat to US security and listed as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In 1994, he was arrested in San Francisco and deported to Jordan, where he was acquitted for lack of evidence on charges he was involved in terrorist bombings earlier that year.
The intelligence report said that before his capture, Abdeljalil represented Khalifa in business transactions and signed documents on his behalf. He was also trying to sell land in Zamboanga owned by Khalifa and his Filipino wife, Alice Yabo, Domingo said.
Domingo claimed that Abdeljalil’s house in Zamboanga City was used as a safehouse and meeting place for al-Qaeda members operating in the southern Philippines, and that his Zamboanga-based construction firm was a front for funding the terror group’s activities here and abroad.
She said the Jordanian, who has two Filipino wives, obtained a temporary resident visa from the immigration bureau in October 1995, but failed to extend it when it expired in October 1998. -with Jaime Laude, Christina Mendez, Mike Frialde, Jose Aravilla, Jose Rodel Clapano, Bong Fabe, AP, AFP, Reuters