Manhunt

If investigators and politicians could only keep their mouths shut for a couple of weeks, the mastermind of the bombing at the Davao International Airport could be arrested with less trouble.

Of course the relatives of one of the fatalities in the bombing are protesting and denying that he was a suicide bomber. Investigators apparently focused on the guy because the leadership of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front admitted he was a member of the group. They even knew what he was doing at the airport, telling the press he was simply meeting a relative who was arriving from abroad.

But the investigators should have conducted a thorough probe first before opening their mouths about the likely bomber. As it is, the public has forgotten that investigators have said they are still trying to determine if the guy was a suicide bomber or if the bomb accidentally went off. Did he leave his knapsack with the bomb somewhere? If the bomb had exploded while he had the knapsack with him, how come his body was not mangled by the powerful blast? Did he have an accomplice?

When the fate of peace negotiations is at stake and the government has to defend a policy of war, credibility becomes even more important in the probe of a terrorist attack. There should be material evidence, there should be witnesses. Until those two factors can be presented, investigators should withhold comment, or at least keep their statements to a minimum.

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That also goes for the mayor of Davao City, Rodrigo Duterte. In a land of lawlessness and chaos, the mayor has earned many admirers for bringing peace and order to his city. At the rate he’s shooting his mouth off about the bombing, however, his detractors may soon outnumber his fans. Now Duterte is being seen not just as a despot but a loony, which can’t be good at all for his beloved city.

If we want to stay a step ahead of determined terrorists, we all have to stay calm and think clearly. Terrorists derive their pleasure from seeing a nation unsettled, terrified, in a panic.

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Reports in Manila said authorities are focusing on an MILF member named Yunos Moclis who has been linked to Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the Islamist group believed to be al-Qaeda’s arm in Southeast Asia. Moclis, who was reportedly spotted last week in North Cotabato, is being eyed as the mastermind of the Davao bombing.

Moclis, according to the reports, is a Maranao in his early 40s who trained and fought in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion. There he reportedly met Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, an Indonesian JI member who is now serving time in the Philippines for illegal possession of explosives. Upon Moclis’ return from Afghanistan, he reportedly became a trainer at Camp Abubakar, the MILF’s biggest camp, which was also used by al-Qaeda guerrillas. The MILF has admitted training foreign fighters in its camps, but claims the operations ended when the camps were overrun during the Estrada administration.

Al-Ghozi and Moclis have been tagged as the brains behind the bombings in Metro Manila on Dec. 30, 2000, with the worst attack killing 19 commuters in a Light Rail Transit coach.

Moclis is said to be one of the commanders of the Special Operations Group of the Bangsamoro Islamic Security Force under Alim Mimbantas, a member of the MILF’s executive committee.

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It’s not the first time that the name of Moclis has surfaced. In October 2001, cyberdyaryo came out with a report identifying a man going by the alias Moclis, who purportedly trained 12 members each from the MILF and the New People’s Army in making and detonating bombs. The 24 guerrillas reportedly came from the cities of Da-vao, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga.

Moclis was identified as Saifullah Yunos, commander of the Special Operations Group, 3rd Field Division of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces based on Nosa-Nosa Island in Balindong town, Lanao del Sur.

Those grand names of guerrilla units are almost laughable, if only terrorist groups weren’t capable of inflicting so much harm and misery on civilians.

As a requirement for "graduation" from Moclis’ training program, students had to detonate six bombs in the cities of Iligan, Davao, General Santos and Cagayan de Oro, cyberdyaryo reported in its story datelined Cagayan de Oro City, quoting the Regional Law Enforcement Commission.

Moclis reportedly sent his students to the cities of Marawi, Iligan, Cagayan de Oro, Malaybalay, Valencia, Ozamis and Butuan.

What’s interesting were the students’ purported missions. They were reportedly deployed to sabotage National Power Corp. transmission lines, particularly at the boundary of Lanao del Sur and Bukidnon, as well as go-vernment and private communication facilities in Misamis Oriental. They were also supposedly tasked to bomb shopping malls in Iligan, Ozamis and Cagayan de Oro; bus terminals in Butuan and Valencia cities, and gas stations in Malaybalay.

As we have seen, some of the missions were apparently successful.

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With such an accomplished terrorist as their prey, all the more should government investigators work quietly. They should take pointers from the capture in Pakistan of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, said to be al-Qaeda’s No. 3 man and suspected planner of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

On the heels of Khalid’s arrest, there was a report that two of Osama bin Laden’s sons had also been arrested. The story was subsequently denied, but not all people are buying the denial. If someone made a slip of the tongue about top-secret arrests, his tongue could be cut off for compromising the operations against Bin Laden.

Our investigators should take a hint and start working instead of talking.