Bombing ‘brains’ a ‘sensible trader,’ his relatives insist

PIKIT, North Cotabato — Relatives and supporters here of the alleged mastermind of the Oct. 10 bombing of a bus terminal in Kidapawan City insisted yesterday that he is a "sensible businessman" and that the accusations against him were "speculative."

The alleged bombing brains, Musim Mamintal, reportedly surrendered to Col. Cardozo Luna, of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade based in Carmen, North Cotabato, over the weekend.

An arrested suspect, Datu Ali Sultan, tagged as the one who planted the bomb in a waiting shed at Kidapawan’s bus terminal, pointed to Mamintal, who hails from this town, as the alleged mastermind of the bombing.

"It is very difficult for us to believe that he (Mamintal) is a leader of an extortion gang. He is a legitimate contractor of government infrastructure projects and has no criminal records whatsoever," said a barangay official here, who requested anonymity.

Mamintal, according to another source, is a "wealthy man" who, they believe, would not damage his reputation by getting himself involved in extortion activities.

The source added that Mamintal’s voluntary surrender to the 602nd IB, for him to be freely investigated as to why he has been implicated in the carnage, was enough proof that he is innocent.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol, chairman of the Provincial Peace and Order Council, described Mamintal’s surrender as a "good development."

"But the case is far from solved. We still have to determine if Mamintal, indeed, is the mastermind of the bombing as alleged by the two suspects arrested earlier," Piñol said.

Local folk, among them barangay officials, said they are also convinced that Mamintal does not have any links with either the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) or the Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom syndicate.

"While we are obviously gaining headway in the resolution of the case, we have yet to do so many things. Our accomplishment for now is not even 20 percent of the work we ought to do," Piñol said.

The Oct. 10 bombing was the worst-ever in Kidapawan, the capital of North Cotabato. The blast left seven people dead and 24 others badly wounded.

The police and military intelligence communities earlier had tagged extortion gangs of the Pentagon, the so-called Urban Lions Group, the Dragon Gang and the Suicide Bombers Team, as possibly behind the spate of bombings in Central Mindanao.