EDITORIAL - One al-Ghazie too many

We should be thankful that the military and police are doing their job, arresting persons suspected to be responsible for kidnapping, extortion and bomb attacks in Mindanao. You can’t help wincing, however, at the way the saga of Abu Muslim al-Ghazie, alleged brains behind recent bombings in General Santos City, has unfolded.

The name first came up in a telephone call to a radio station in Mindanao. The caller identified himself as Abu Muslim al-Ghazie and warned that more bombs were set to go off nationwide. Tracing the phone call, the military arrested JR Jikiron in Cotabato City and said he was Al-Ghazie – a claim denied by police in General Santos City. With that denial, it was perhaps to be expected that the cops would come up with their own suspect.

Last Wednesday a combined team of military and police agents arrested another suspect in Cotabato City. The man was identified as Nur Mohammed Umog, allegedly a member of the Abu Sayyaf who also went by the alias Abu Muslim al-Ghazie. The military and police said several men apparently used the alias.

That was one al-Ghazie too many. On Friday the military’s Southern Command issued yet another clarification, ostensibly after subjecting Umog to tactical interrogation. Abu Muslim al-Ghazie, the military said, was not a person but a group – the extortion arm of the Abu Sayyaf. Al-Ghazie, the military said, means an Abu Sayyaf warrior. Was that what Umog told his interrogators?

Philippine authorities have had some success in their anti-terror campaign. An Indonesian believed to be a ranking member of the Southeast Asian affiliate of al-Qaeda is now serving time in a Philippine prison after admitting possession of a ton of explosives found in General Santos. The Indonesian has been tagged as the mastermind of the deadly bomb attacks in Metro Manila in December 2000. Cohorts of the brains behind the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center were arrested in an apartment in Manila. Found in computer files during that raid were details of plans to assassinate Pope John Paul II in Manila and bomb US-bound airliners.

This episode involving Abu Muslim al-Ghazie, however, is turning into slapstick comedy. Coupled with the still unresolved hostage crisis in Basilan, any bungling in the al-Ghazie case can only aggravate public impatience and frustration with the military and police.