Basilan erupts anew; pols seen behind violence
By Julie Alipala
Inquirer Mindanao
First Posted 01:40:00 04/15/2010
Filed Under: Politics, Election Violence, Crime, Acts of terror
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ISABELA CITY, Philippines—Some powerful figures, possibly politicians, may have instigated the bomb attacks carried out by Abu Sayyaf extremists here on Tuesday, police said.
“There were indications that the Abu Sayyaf was being used to sow violence, it was not pure terrorism,†said Senior Supt. Antonio Mendoza, Basilan police chief.
Government troops and more than 60 Abu Sayyaf bandits led by Puruji Indama, whose brother was among the dead in the coordinated attacks on the capital, clashed anew on Wednesday morning in Barangay Begang on the forested outskirts of the city.
Isabela Mayor Cherry Akbar and military officials said there had been no reports of casualties from the gun battle, but neither had there been any militants captured.
The day before, dozens of Abu Sayyaf gunmen, many disguised as police and military commandos, detonated bombs at a cathedral and school grandstand, and then opened fire on civilians and troops after their apparent plan to seize the city faltered as government forces fought back.
Police corrected the death toll at 14, not 15 as earlier reported.
It was one of the most ambitious attacks by the Abu Sayyaf, a small but violent al-Qaida-linked group blacklisted by Washington following two decades of deadly bombings, kidnappings and beheadings. The group is suspected of having received training and funds from Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network.
Basilan Bishop Martin Jumoad condemned the attacks and called on his flock to remain calm.
“His church is 70 percent damaged. We won’t be able to hold Mass here temporarily,†Jumoad said in an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report.
Hired guns?
Mendoza said the role of influential persons—whom he would not identify—in the city attacks also came out during the police interrogation of two captured Abu Sayyaf members.
“These attackers are seemingly mercenaries. Based on some accounts, they were hired, forced to wear the police uniforms and were directed to implement some attacks. And, of course, there’s money involved,†he said.
Pressed to identify these people, Mendoza said they could be politicians. He would not give categorical answers.
According to a report by The Associated Press (AP), Rear Adm. Alex Pama said the Abu Sayyaf gunmen might have planned to explode bombs and take over key roads as they unleashed violence in the city by burning buildings, kidnapping people and springing jailed detainees. He also cited intelligence and information from the captured bandits.
The well-funded plan was similar to the April 1995 attack on the Christian town of Ipil in Zamboanga Sibugay, where more than 50 people were killed after the bandits robbed banks and stores and burned the town center.
“The Ipil raid was apparently their model for this failed siege,†Pama told AP. “It was a major, well-planned attack that luckily went bad in their own hands.â€
Real terror attack
Lt. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino, Western Mindanao Command chief, said the military considered the attack an act of terrorism. “We see it as real terror attack but at the same time we cannot discount the possibility of political color and it is being investigated by our police in Basilan,†he said.
A bomb in a Hyundai Starex van apparently exploded prematurely near the Basilan National High School, damaging a grandstand and catching the attention of residents and a contingent of Marines, who engaged the bandits.
“We have reports that the vehicle was owned by a politician. We cannot make public yet the identity pending deeper investigation,†Mendoza said.
An hour later, another bomb attached to a motorcycle went off at the back of the 40-year-old Santa Isabel Cathedral, damaging five cars and wounding civilians.
Troops later found and detonated a third bomb outside the house of Judge Leo Principe.
Test mission
At a press briefing in Malacañang, Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza dismissed the Abu Sayyaf attackers as “amateurs†and “new to the job†as he noted that the bombs they placed exploded “prematurely.â€
This meant that the “professionals†in the group were “no longer at hand to conduct this operation,†Mendoza said. The attacks, he added, could be a “test mission†of newly trained recruits.
The fatalities included three Marines, a policeman, three Abu Sayyaf members (including Indama’s brother Bensar) and seven civilians, among them an elderly man who died of a heart attack at the height of the encounter.
In an AFP report, Dolorfino said the attacks appeared to have been well planned, noting that the police and military uniforms as worn by the gunmen were brand new.
He said military intelligence had received information ahead of Tuesday’s siege that the Abu Sayyaf was plotting an attack. “They were planning something big. This was well planned and apparently they were well funded,†he said.
“I don’t think there was a failure of intelligence on our part because we were pursuing certain leads (ahead of the attack),†Dolorfino said.
Lockdown
As questions arose over how the militants were able to slip into the heart of Isabela undetected, troops and police placed the city of 150,000 under lockdown on Wednesday.
Business establishments, banks and government offices were closed.
Jessie Tan, a grocery store owner, said his attendants were screening customers because they might be dealing with terrorists already.
About 300 Marines and Special Forces troops erected road blocks and kept guard on vital installations, while at least two armored personnel carriers prowled the streets.
Naval patrol boats were also deployed to watch coastal areas to prevent the attackers from escaping by sea, the military said.
Fresh troops belonging to the US-trained Army elite force were deployed to Basilan to pursue the bandits, Navy spokesperson Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo told reporters at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City Wednesday.
President Macapagal-Arroyo, who is in Spain for a state visit, told Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza by phone to oversee operations aimed at pursuing the bandits and securing the province, and to reactivate the antiterrorism task force.
Fresh fighting
Puruji Indama reportedly fled with three men toward a mangrove area on the outskirts. Officials said that villagers sighted 60 more Abu Sayyaf members who were sent apparently to fetch Puruji, the group’s second-highest commander on the island.
Troops poured into the area overnight, sparking sporadic gun battles. Helicopter gunships stood by to support them, Dolorfino said.
Mendoza told reporters at Camp Crame in Quezon City that the bandits briefly held a man, identified only as Ramil, whom they seized from his house in Barangay Baluno at about 11 a.m. to prevent policemen and Marines from retaliating. The man was freed unscathed two hours later.
The gun battle spread to Baluno and Barangay Pangaraan and the city plaza as the bandits escaped to various directions.
“The Abu Sayyaf members forcibly entered several houses to escape the Marines and policemen. The firefight was very intense in Barangay Begang,†Mendoza said.
A getaway vehicle was recovered in the clearing operations, inside of which were more improvised bombs, the AFP report said.
Major security menace
The Abu Sayyaf is the smaller of at least four Moro groups fighting for decades for a separate homeland in the predominantly Catholic Mindanao. The government has often dismissed the Abu Sayyaf as a bandit group crippled by relentless US-backed military offensives.
But the Abu Sayyaf, estimated to have more than 390 fighters, has periodically surprised authorities with high-profile attacks and is still considered a major security menace. With reports from Christine O. Avendaño, Marlon Ramos, Jocelyn R. Uy, AFP and AP
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