V-Day bombing suspect arrested anew

Police recently re-arrested a suspect in the 2005 Valentine’s Day bombing who was previously released due to a legal technicality after a Makati court issued a new arrest warrant.

Investigators said that Richard Ayeras alias Abdul Kareem Ayeras was arrested last July 29 on Aglipay St. in Poblacion, Mandaluyong City, after a new warrant of arrest was issued July 10 by Judge Joselito Villarosa of the Makati City Regional Trial Court’s Branch 66 on charges of rebellion.

Ayeras, an alleged member of Rajah Solaiman Islamic Movement (RSIM), is now detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

Police records showed that Ayeras, a suspect in the Feb. 14, 2005 bombing that killed several passengers of a commuter bus in Makati and another plot to conduct more terror attacks during the Holy Week of 2005, was first arrested last Jan. 3 by agents of the PNP Intelligence Group in Barangay Mangayao in Tag-kawayan, Quezon, after an arrest warrant was issued by Makati City Judge Marissa Guillen for the original rebellion charges.

Guillen, however, was later forced to order the release of Ayeras last February due to a technicality after the defense lawyer convinced the court that his client was “Richard Ayeras” and not “Abdul Kareem Ayeras” as named in the arrest order issued by the court.

Despite his release, police intelligence agents maintained that Ayeras was part of the RSIM group which conducted the Valentine’s Day bombing and planned to conduct more terror attacks that same year as part of the operations dubbed as “Big Bang.”

Probers said Ayeras’ group rented an apartment on Lilac St. in Quezon City where some 600 kilos of explosives were seized during a police raid on March 10, 2005.

The seized explosives were supposed to be used for the Big Bang bombings scheduled to be carried out during Holy Week of 2005.

Chief Superintendent Romeo Ricardo, then director of the PNP Intelligence Group, said Ayeras had a direct link to the plan to carry out the bombings, including a plan to attack the Rajah Sulayman Park near Baywalk in Malate, Manila.

“Ayeras was one of the key players planning the bombings during the Holy Week (of 2005), which was preempted with the arrest of Dawud Santos and the seizure of about 600 kilos of explosives on Holy Wednesday in Quezon City,” Ricardo said.

Ayeras was chosen by RSIM leader Hilarion “Ahmad” Santos before the Valentine’s Day bombing to be a member of the core group that would conduct the terror attacks.

Ricardo said Ayeras had volunteered to drive a truck loaded with explosives prior to the Valentine’s Day bombing in Makati City last 2005.

“He (Ayeras) was behind the logistics in all their bombing operations by getting money from Akmad Santos and distributing the funds to bombers in the field,” Ricardo said.

He said that Ayeras, together with Pio de Vera, Feliciano “Abubakar” delos Reyes, and Ibrahim Kessel alias Abu Mujaheed, undertook military training conducted by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front at the Liguasan Marsh in Pendatun, Maguindanao, in 2003.