Charges readied against 4 suspected JI terrorists

Charges of illegal possession of explosives are being prepared against the four suspected members of a local Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror cell arrested Tuesday for planning to bomb President Arroyo’s pre-inaugural speech.

Western Police District (WPD) investigation chief Superintendent Edgar Danao said the charges will be lodged against Arnold Kamansa, the alleged terror cell leader; Ahmad Ento, Anwar Adam, and Mama Tangkalaysay before the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The four were arrested following intelligence reports of their plans to bomb the pre-inauguration speech of Mrs. Arroyo at the Quirino Grandstand.

The arresting lawmen led by WPD director Chief Superintendent Pedro Bulaong seized from the suspects various bomb-making equipment and five kilos of explosives.

Among the items seized from the suspects was a notebook indicating they trained at a terrorist camp in the Mount Cararao region in Central Mindanao.

Bulaong announced Camp Cararao is a place where members of JI are being trained.

According to Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita, the arrest of the four confirmed their intelligence reports of Filipinos being recruited by the JI and being trained in the jungles of Mindanao.

"The ones caught trying (to bomb the inauguration) are the trainees," Ermita said.

"The JI cells are actually composed of these Filipinos that they have trained in Mt. Cararao and project (for deployment) to Metro Manila," he said.

Ermita said 90 percent of the group, estimated at 40, who were training Filipino Muslim recruits in a camp in the Mt. Cararao region somewhere in Cotabato were Indonesians.

Ermita said the Mt. Cararao region was part of an area where the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is still active.

The MILF has been observing a ceasefire for a year as it prepares to hold formal peace talks with Manila. Its leadership has denied any links to JI.

Ermita hinted that the JI trainees might be drawn from the MILF ranks as "the MILF are the same people on the ground" in Mount Cararao.

He said the government would challenge anew the MILF to remove the reported presence of JI terror cells in areas known to be their strongholds to show their sincerity in peace talks with the government.

The arrest of the JI suspects follows the visit of Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander-in-chief of the United States Pacific Command, over the weekend.

During the visit, Fargo outlined a new $4-million counter-terrorism package for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

The US has kept a close watch on the Philippines where the JI terror cells were believed to have infiltrated Metro Manila.

The JI, regarded as al-Qaeda’s Southeast Asian arm, has been held responsible for a series of bloody attacks including the 2002 Bali bombings.

The JI has conducted bombings mostly in neighboring Indonesia. Intelligence officials say the group is using southern Philippines, the hotbed of a decades-old Muslim separatist rebellion, as a training base.

The Philippines has been a close ally of the US in the fight against terrorism where it has been training Filipino troops in anti-terrorism every year.

Fargo said yesterday more training exercises are being lined up later this year in the continuing battle against terrorism. Fargo said he is scheduled to meet with Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Narciso Abaya in Hawaii for the regular meeting of the RP-US Mutual Defense Board (MDB). — Cecille Suerte Felipe, Marichu Villanueva, AFP