Two more suspects in Parang bombing fall

COTABATO CITY — Authorities arrested the other day two more suspects in the Jan. 4 bombing of a basketball game in Parang, Maguindanao that killed 22 people and caused serious injuries to 71 others, among them the town’s re-electionist mayor, Vivencio Bataga.

Bataga, chairman of the municipal peace and order council, identified the suspects as Khalid Macapaar and a certain Omar, both nabbed by lawmen in a secluded barangay in Matanog, Maguindanao.

Bataga, who sustained shrapnel wounds in different parts of the body and is now recuperating in his residence in Parang, said the suspects are now in the custody of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The ARMM police said Macapaar and Omar are now undergoing interrogation by investigators.

Soldiers manning a roadside checkpoint in Matanog earlier arrested Kusain Taha, also known as Commander Bagi-Bagi, who was also tagged as among those responsible for the bombing, the worst ever in the history of Parang.

Taha, who is a member of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), is now detained at the Maguindanao provincial jail awaiting prosecution.

The two alleged masterminds in the bombing, Parang Councilor Abdul Katab and Suharto Ahmad, who were already charged in court, remain at large.

Sources from Parang’s municipal peace and order council said they have four witnesses who can confirm in court that prior to the bombing, a re-electionist councilor in Parang offered them P30,000 each for them to act as "lookouts" in the surroundings of the gymnasium on the day the bombing was pulled off.

Senior Supt. Isnaji Bantala, director of the ARMM police, said the CIDG will file today corresponding charges against Macapaar and Omar.