Maguindanao bombing suspect nabbed

COTABATO CITY — Policemen nabbed over the weekend in Mlang, North Cotabato one of the masterminds in last year’s bombing in Datu Piang, Maguindanao that left Mayor Datu Saudi Ampatuan and 17 others dead.

Datu Benny Boy Mokalid, vice mayor of Datu Piang, and his companion, Brando Agan Dimalen, were first stopped for body search by policemen manning a security roadblock but were subsequently held for interrogation after fragmentation grenades were found inside their pockets.

Mokalid,who has been hiding since a court in Maguindanao issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with the bombing, has been the subject of a police and military manhunt since January for allegedly plotting, along with Commander Rambo of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the December 23 bombing at the town proper of Datu Piang, which left Ampatuan, eldest son of Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan, and 17 others dead.

Superintendent Melchor Loyola, North Cotabato’s police director, said the policemen who intercepted Mokalid and his companion did not know at first that he is the vice mayor of Datu Piang, having introduced himself as Lawrence Tuan Tavidad.

Maguindanao’s police command tried on Sunday to take custody of Mokalid for him to be litigated by the court, where he had been charged in connection with the bombing, but Loyola’s office refused to turn him in since he would have to be prosecuted first in North Cotabato for impersonation and illegal possession of explosives. — John Unson