Hunt for JI suspects pressed

The military is pressing the hunt for two other Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) suspects linked to the bombing of five targets in Metro Manila that killed 22 people and wounded more than 100 others in December 2000.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Army commander Lt. Gen. Efren Abu said two suspected terrorists captured in Marawi City Monday have admitted taking part in the near-simultaneous bombings on Dec. 30, 2000.

Ermita said Mamasao Naga and Abdul Pata, who were captured in Marawi City last Monday by Army and Marine intelligence agents, belong to the Indonesia-based JI terrorist network and operated under the direct supervision of slain Indonesian bomb expert Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi.

At Malacañang, President Arroyo praised the military yesterday for the arrest of Naga and Pata.

"We will continue waging this fight to clean up our shores of terrorists and alongside our neighbors, to sweep the region of their clandestine cells," she said.

"The arrest of the two JI suspects behind the Rizal Day bombings is a clear indication of the undiminished and unrelenting vigilance of our people in the global alliance against terror.

"We will do our best to bring the battle against terror forward, and we will continue to be a strong link in the global chain of constricting terrorism," the President said.

The military said Naga and Pata are also connected with Muklis Yunos, special operations chief of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, who is now detained for his involvement in the Rizal Day bombings, he added.

Armed Forces chief Gen. Narciso Abaya refused to identify the two men still at large as he, along with Ermita and Abu. presented Naga and Pata to journalists yesterday.

"I hope you understand, we cannot give you much details because that will jeopardize our continuing operations," he told reporters. "There are still two terrorists out there."

Abaya said Naga was responsible for the bombing of a Light Rail Transit coach in the Blumentritt, Manila station, which accounted for 19 of the casualties.

Pata planted a bomb on a bus traveling along EDSA in Cubao, Quezon City, where at least one person was killed, he added.

The two handcuffed suspects were brought briefly into a hall at Armed Forces headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City to face the cameras. They wore orange detainees’ shirts and were not allowed to talk.

Apart from the LRT coach and the bus on EDSA, the terrorists also attacked almost simultaneously on Dec. 30, 2000 Plaza Ferguson across the US Embassy in Manila, a warehouse near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Parañaque City, and an abandoned gasoline station along EDSA in Makati City, where two police bomb disposal team members were killed while trying to defuse an explosive device planted there.

In a related development, a suspected top JI leader in Mindanao has been arrested by Indonesian authorities upon his return home.

Chief Superintendent Ismael Rafanan, Philippine National Police intelligence chief, said the suspect, known only as Mustaqim, was commander of a JI military academy in Central Mindanao.

"We were informed by our Indonesian counterparts that they have arrested (Mustaqim)," he said. "Our investigators are going (to Indonesia) because we don’t have an existing (extradition) treaty with Indonesia for (Mustaqim’s) return here."

Before coming to Mindanao, Mustaqim taught Islamic studies at Pesantren Lukmanul Hakiem in Malaysia, he added.

Rafanan said Mustaqim is a veteran of the 1986-1987 Soviet- Afghan war and was in charge of terrorist operations in the entire Mindanao.

Mustaqim is the brains behind the series of terrorist bombings in Mindanao, particularly the cities of General Santos and Cotabato in 2002, he added.

Meanwhile, former Armed Forces vice chief Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia said he believes JI in Southeast Asia is operating independently of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network.

"I don’t (think) al-Qaeda will target the Philippines," he said. "The terrorist Jemaah Islamiyah is operating on its own, and is not taking orders from its international counterpart al-Qaeda in its operations in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines."

"Al-Qaeda and JI might have some links, but that doesn’t mean that al-Qaeda gives orders to JI. While the JI is basically based in Southeast Asia, mostly in Indonesia, might have links with al-Qaeda, we can’t say that al-Qaeda is operating in the Philippines."

The JI has been blamed for several bomb plots and attacks across Southeast Asia, including the Oct. 12, 2002, bombings in Bali, Indonesia, which killed 202 people.

The US has expressed deep concern over the reported presence of JI training camps in Mindanao and has deployed American counterterrorism troops to train and arm Filipino soldiers. — Jaime Laude, Ding Cervantes, Marichu Villanueva