Alleged bomber confined in hospital

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao, Philippines – An Army hospital here is in custody of a suspected foreign-trained bomber who was injured in an accidental explosion while trying to rig an improvised explosive device in a public school in Datu Hofer, Maguindanao past 6 p.m. Wednesday.

The suspect, Sabtula Akad Unte, 24, who sustained shrapnel wounds in different parts of his body, was first detected by operatives of the city police, led by Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane. He was undergoing treatment at a government hospital in Cotabato City.

“After learning he sustained shrapnel wounds, we immediately verified from where he was and we found out that he is from Barangay Labo-Labo in Datu Hofer, where there was a bomb explosion several hours before we learned of his presence in the hospital,” Dangane said.

Dangane said they immediately worked out the transfer of Unte at the Camp Siongco Hospital of the 6th Infantry Division here after having learned from police intelligence sources in Maguindanao that he is a guerilla ordnance expert implicated in a spate of bombings in Maguindanao in recent months.

The arrest of Unte came less than a week after rogue Moro rebels, led by Tatah Uy, blasted an IED, fashioned from a live mortar round rigged with a timing device attached to a mobile phone, at the town proper of Datu Piang, Maguindanao. A six-year-old boy and two local public school officials were killed in the bombing.

The spokesman of the 6th ID, Lt. Col. Benjamin Hao, said Unte is now being treated by military physicians.

“He is being treated fairly and humanely even if he is a suspected terrorist. It’s the police that will initiate his prosecution,” Hao said.

Dangane said the Datu Hofer police will file criminal charges against Unte on the first working hour on Monday.