18 Abu, JI men face rebellion charges

The Department of Justice yesterday filed rebellion charges against 18 alleged members of the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) before the Makati City Regional Trial Court in connection with the Valentine’s Day bombings in Makati City.

Senior State Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco, who heads the DOJ’s rebellion task force, identified those charged as Rajah Solaiman Movement founder Hilarion del Rosario Santos III, Abu Hamid Al-Luzoni who is also known as Hannah Santos, Nurrurija Amdal, Mursidi Balao, Ismael Idris, Malik Alimuddin, Anne Anover and Bodot Abdullah.

The accused are detained at the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

Included in the rebellion charges were Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani; Jainal Sali, also known as Abu Solaiman; PO3 San Amdal, Khalil Pareja, Pio de Vera, Abdul Kareem Ayeras, Omar Lavilla, Mike Rueca and Ashty Dan. Several other unidentified people who are still at large were also charged with rebellion.

Velasco said the accused violated Article 134 in relation to Article 135 of the Revised Penal Code.

He said that since the year 2000, the accused, "as members of the Abu Sayyaf and JI," had risen publicly to "take arms against the Philippine government for the purposes of removing from the allegiance to said government or its laws, the territory of the Republic of the Philippines."

The accused, he added, have been advocating "for a separate and independent ‘Islamic state’" in the island of Mindanao.

In pushing this rebellion forward, the accused "conspired with each other and transported large quantities of firearms and explosives and carried out several bombings in different parts of the country from 2000 to present," Velasco added.

The latest of these bombings was the Valentine’s Day bomb attack in the commercial and business district of Makati City, which killed four people and seriously wounded over 60 others.

As a result of the bomb attack, Velasco said, "private and government properties (worth millions of pesos) have been destroyed." Rebellion is a non-bailable offense.

Meanwhile, a militant Islamic convert who jumped bail after being linked to bombing plots is planning fresh attacks in Metro Manila, a military intelligence official warned yesterday.

Santos’ younger brother, Tyrone Santos, who converted to Islam and took the name Dawud Santos, remains in hiding after posting bail in April, a month after being arrested with a huge cache of explosives.

He was arrested in Quezon City in March while planning to plant 1,000 kilos of explosives in Manila’s Ermita district, possibly as a truck bomb for an attack on the United States embassy.

"We can’t locate Dawud but according to our reports he is the one contacting his comrades to conduct bombings in Metro Manila," said military deputy chief for intelligence Rear Adm.Tirso Danga.

"According to our reports, he was going around talking to the would-be bombers in Metro Manila," he added without elaborating.

The younger Santos is allegedly a senior member of the RSM, Christians from northern Luzon who have converted to Islam and have been linked to local and foreign Muslim militant groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

Last month, the military captured the elder Santos in a Zamboanga City safehouse. The elder Santos is also known by his Muslim name, Ahmad, and the alias Abu Hamza.

Another anti-terrorism official said the younger Santos is somewhere in Pangasinan and is lying low.

With the arrest of their chieftain, however, RSM members seem agitated, Danga said. "We captured their leader. If his men retaliate, it’s his people who will suffer," Danga warned, adding that the RSM could stage new bombings to retaliate for the capture of their leader.

Anti-terrorism operations have also been intensified against four suspected Abu Sayyaf bombers allegedly dispatched to Metro Manila by their Indonesian trainers Dulmatin and Umar Patek.

Dulmatin and Patek are believed to be in the company of Janjalani in Central Mindanao.

A few weeks before his capture in southern Zamboanga city, the elder Santos met with Janjalani and Patek, an Indonesian suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings who is hiding in Mindanao, Danga said last week.

Abu Sayyaf rebels and Filipino Islamic converts trained by JI bomb experts are suspected in the bombing of a ferry last year, killing 116 people in the country’s worst terror attack. — Jose Rodel Clapano, Jaime Laude, AFP, AP