Suspect in thwarted school bombing freed

COTABATO CITY — A self-confessed member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who was caught allegedly rigging a powerful explosive inside the office of the Cotabato City State Polytechnic College’s dean recently, is now free on bail.

Senior Superintendent Sangacala Dampac, city police chief, said they did not expect the suspect, Montaser Guiday, to be allowed to post bail because of the seriousness of the offense.

"Although no one was hurt in that supposed bombing because the local police and the Army’s bomb experts were able to defuse the bomb promptly, the attempt to explode it inside a government-owned school was something extremely bad," he said.

The court allowed Guiday to post P60,000 bail for his temporary liberty.

Capt. Ferdinand Escalante, commanding officer of the Army’s 6th Ordnance and Explosives Detachment here, said the bomb planted inside the dean’s office was made of TNT with an intricate blasting contraption, indicating that the man who rigged it was well-versed in fabricating improvised explosives.

Guiday admitted during police interrogation that the failed bombing was a test mission for him after being trained, along with 59 others, in the handling of explosives in an MILF enclave in Central Mindanao.

Guiday reportedly posted bail just days after 35-year-old Abdulbasit Usman, the primary suspect in the April 21 bombing of the Fitmart department store in General Santos City, escaped from the custody of the Sarangani police.

Usman was tagged by Ahmad Saluan and Nor Mohammad Umog, arrested leaders of the Abu Sayyaf’s Al-Ghazie extortion ring, as the one they hired to produce the homemade explosive they used in the Fitmart bombing.

The blast, which left 15 people dead and 55 others wounded, was the worst ever in General Santos.

Dampac said he has fielded intelligence agents to monitor the movements of Guiday and restrain him from possibly carrying out another bombing in the city.

"We cannot do anything about his release because his detention and supposed continuing prosecution is not within our jurisdiction. It is the court that has the final say on this," he said.