NBI brings arrested BIFF member to Manila

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines – A member of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) arrested last Saturday after leaving an improvised explosive along a highway in Midsayap town has been transferred to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) central office in Manila.

Senior Inspector Henry Narciso, Midsayap deputy police chief, said the NBI will spearhead the filing in Manila of criminal charges against BIFF member Abdulgani Malang Abbas.

Narciso declined to elaborate on why the NBI, which has a regional office in nearby Cotabato City, has taken custody of Abbas, an ethnic Maguindanaon.

Narciso, however, confirmed that Abbas was immediately brought to Manila following his arrest last Saturday, accompanied by NBI agents and Superintendent Renante de los Santos, Midsayap police chief.

Narciso said it was, in fact, local NBI agents who informed the Midsayap police about a bombing plot last Saturday, which led to Abbas’ arrest.

“One reason for his transfer to Manila is to put him in a place beyond the reach of his accomplices,” Narciso told reporters.

There were incidents in the past where BIFF bandits raided jails in Central Mindanao and “rescued” their detained cohorts, among them foreign-trained bomb experts.

Abbas was nabbed by bystanders and policemen while approaching his parked motorcycle after abandoning a box containing an improvised bomb not far from the entrance of a roadside hotel in Midsayap.

The bomb, fashioned from a live 60-mm mortar round rigged with a blasting mechanism attached to a mobile phone, was promptly deactivated by Army bomb experts.

The explosive was neatly placed in box underneath ripe durian.