Suspect in Mindanao attack arrested

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao , Philippines  – Police operatives arrested yesterday in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat a guerilla ordnance expert implicated in more than a dozen attacks in Central Mindanao the past three years.

Superintendent Saiben Acmad, chief of the Isulan muni-cipal police, said the suspect, Aladdin Dumpao, also known as Tho and Makaw, voluntarily turned himself in, after sensing that policemen, backed by civilian volunteers led by local officials, have surrounded his hideout in Barangay Bual, a farming district in Isulan.

Dumpao, an ethnic Ma-guin-danaon said to have links with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, reportedly underwent training in handling and fabrication of improvised explosives in Kandahar, Afganistan during the early 1990s.  

“We learned of his presence in Barangay Bual from patriotic Muslim residents there, some of them members of the local religious community,” Acmad said.

Acmad and his men decided to raid the lair of Dumpao after having confirmed that he is long wanted in connection with his alleged involvement in the bombings the past three years of business establishments in the cities of Gen. Santos, Koronadal and Tacurong.

Sources from the military’s intelligence community said Dumpao was also involved in the toppling down using improvised bombs of more than a dozen steel power transmission pylons in North Cotabato between 2008 to late last year.

Acmad said Dumpao willingly allowed policemen to search his hideout after having been shown a warrant issued by Judge Renato Gleyo of the Isulan municipal trial court.

Policemen found fragmentation grenades, bomb-making materials, schematic wiring diagrams for improvised explosive devices, and mobile phones from the hideout of Dumpao.