Explosives used in LRT blasts bought from Cebuano trader

CEBU — An Army spokesman has confirmed that the al-Qaeda terrorist network of Osama bin Laden has established links in Cebu which may have purchased the explosives used in the Rizal Day bombings in Metro Manila two years ago.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Michael Manquiquis said the explosives used in the bombings were supplied by a businessman in Talisay City.

The businessman, whose name is withheld upon the request of the Department of Justice pending his arrest, was already charged with illegal possession of explosives, together with two Malaysian nationals, namely, Faiz Bin Abu Bakar Bafana and Riduan Isamudin.

The Malaysians were arrested in Singapore last December for planning to burn the US embassy there.

Manquiquis said suspected terrorist Cusain Ramos, alias Abu Ali, confessed that the ammonium nitrate used in the bombings of the Light Railway Transit (LRT) in December 2000, which killed 22 people and injured 96 others, was bought in Barangay Tangke in Talisay City.

Manquiquis said Ramos, who is from Lapu-Lapu City, admitted that he facilitated the purchase of the ammonium nitrate from the Talisay businessman.

But Ramos clarified that he was not aware that the substance would be used in the bombings.

The military arrested Ramos in Marawi City last month after he was implicated by Indonesian terrorist Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, as among those who helped finance the LRT bombings.

Al-Ghozi is said to be one of the leaders of Jema-ah Islamiya, believed to be the operating arm of Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network in Southeast Asia.

Al-Ghozi was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment here also for illegal possession of explosives.

Surveillance

Manquiquis said they have been monitoring the Talisay-based businessman since Ramos’ arrest.

Talisay City Vice Mayor Lani Abarquez, in an interview with radio station dyLA, said the trader charged in the DOJ has his roots in Sitio Salvador, Barangay Tangke.

But she said the latest information they have about the businessman, whom she last saw last December, is that he is already in Ozamis City.

Abarquez said they are aware of no derogatory record of the businessman or his relatives in the city.

Criminal Investigation and Detection Group deputy chief Ritchie Posadas said they are also monitoring the activities of the businessman.

Based on their initial feedback, Posadas said the businessman is a legitimate dealer of ammonium nitrate, but that he had violated his permit.

Posadas said there is a limitation on the sale of ammonium nitrate since only those who have permits from the Firearms and Explosives Office of the Philippine National Police are allowed to purchase the substance.

But Central Visayas FEO chief Raul Rendon said the businessman is not a licensed ammonium nitrate dealer in Cebu, based on their roster of licensed dealers.

Rendon said only the Orica Explosives Phils. in Toledo City and Dyno West Farmer in Bacong, Negros Oriental, are allowed to sell ammonium nitrate in the region.

Rendon added that there are also eight registered ammonium nitrate users in Central Visayas, four of which are based in Cebu, two in Negros Oriental, one in Bohol and the last one in Siquijor. — Freeman News Service