April 23, 2002, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Bomb rocks GenSan again, by Aquiles Z. Zonio, TJ Burgonio and Philip C. Tube,

GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Another explosion rocked the city Monday morning less than an hour before President Macapagal-Arroyo arrived to visit the victims of Sunday's blast that left 14 people dead and 65 others injured. No one was injured in Monday's explosion in Barangay Calumpang, 7 kilometers from the Buayan Airport, where Ms Macapagal landed at about 10 a.m. 

The explosion, which destroyed a motorized outrigger, came after an alleged special operations chief of the Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility for the bombings and after police arrested two suspects. At the airport, the President was immediately briefed by local officials of the South Cotabato-Sultan Kudarat-Sarangani-General Santos (Socsksargen) area.

Ms Macapagal then proceeded to the St. Elizabeth Hospital where she met with the relatives of the victims. She distributed 5,000 pesos in assistance to the family of each victim. She then went to the General Santos Doctor's Hospital. The President left for Manila at 11:40 a.m. without issuing a statement to reporters.

Authorities are looking into the involvement of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the bomb explosions that rocked General Santos following the arrest of two suspects with alleged links to the separatist group. But a man claiming to be the leader of the Abu Sayyaf special operations group went on radio, claiming responsibility for Sunday's explosions. 

"Pasensiya na," a certain Abu Muslim Alghazie, alleged leader of Al Harakatul Islamiyah, the formal name of Abu Sayyaf, said of the bombings. In an interview over Radio Mindanao Network in Davao City, Alghazie warned of more explosions in General Santos City if the operations against the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan continued. US Special Forces are training Filipino soldiers in fighting Abu Sayyaf bandits, who have been holding a US missionary couple hostage for almost 11 months. "We just want to prove to them that we do exist and that they should not underestimate the strength and capability of our group," he said in another interview over dxRR Radyo Agong in Koronadal City.

Alghazie said the bomb that exploded in General Santos was intentionally placed in a crowded area to harm civilians. "That was just a retaliation against the atrocities committed by government forces against innocent Moro civilians in Basilan and Jolo," Alghazie said in Filipino. He warned the police and military to exercise caution in arresting suspects in the bombings, otherwise his group would launch another wave of bombings in  General Santos.

Alghazie bragged about having links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Police said the two arrested suspects – Molikin Ambe and Bobby Sabelo – had been tagged by witnesses as those who left behind the bomb that exploded in front of the Fitmart Shopping Center on Daproza Avenue. Ambe, 30, and Sabelo, 23, belong to the group of one Commander Benjie Puntuan, a bomb expert of the MNLF, said Senior Supt. Bartolome Baluyot, police chief for Central Mindanao. 

Intelligence agents arrested the two men during a raid on Puntuan's home in Barangay Apopong in General Santos at around 1 a.m. on Monday. They caught up with the two after a brief chase. Puntuan, however, managed to escape under cover of darkness. "They were having a meeting inside the house of Commander Puntuan when the raiding team arrived. Upon sensing the presence of the lawmen, the suspects scampered off to different directions," Baluyot said in a report to Camp Crame. 

The agents confiscated a 20-gauge shotgun and a .38 cal. revolver from Ambe and Sabelo, and seized a hand grenade at Puntuan's home. While the suspects are believed to be members of the MNLF, Senior Supt. Leonardo Espina, national police spokesperson, said police had yet to pinpoint the group that carried out the bombings. 

"We're still determining it. Our investigation is ongoing," he said when asked if investigators had determined whether the suspects belonged to the renegade group of Moro rebel leader Nur Misuari, who is detained on  rebellion charges. Espina further said that it would be too early for the police investigators to say if the Abu Sayyaf or the shadowy group, Indigenous People's Federal Army (Ipfa), was behind the bombings. "At this point, it will be unfair to label anybody because we have not concluded the investigation," he said. Ifpa had earlier claimed planting dud bombs in Metro Manila last month.

Last week, police identified engineer Rogelio Adamat as the primary suspect in the bomb scare after his prints were found in an improvised bomb found on Taft Avenue in Manila. The National Bureau of Investigation on Monday maintained that the Ipfa was the primary suspect in the bombings that hit General Santos City.

"(Earlier) intelligence reports indicated that the next series of bombing attacks will be conducted by the Ifpa as the group expressed willingness to detonate explosives in an effort to attract government attention to their demands," NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco said. Wycoco said that the Abu Sayyaf, which claimed responsibility for the bombing, might have formed a tactical alliance with the Ifpa. 

He noted that the bandit group had no capability to launch a bombing campaign because its members were on the run. An intelligence officer said last month that the series of fake bomb finds was only a "dry run" for a  repeat of the bloody Rizal Day bombings in Metro Manila in 2000. The officer claimed that the Ipfa was only a "front organization" for a Muslim secessionist group. 

The secessionist group allegedly did not want to be blamed once the real bombs start exploding. In General Santos, a feeling of "fear and helplessness" is gripping the business sector. Manuel Yaphuckon, acting chair of the General Santos City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told reporters that local businessmen met on Monday morning to discuss the situation. In Zamboanga City, Col. Francisco Gudani, Southcom deputy chief for operations, said the explosions in General Santos City were part of the terrorist's plot targeting urban centers "to ease the pressures we are doing in Basilan and Sulu provinces." In Davao City, members of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit and the City Mobile Group were given instructions to conduct inspections in malls, churches and vital installations. Vice Mayor Luis Bonguyan said the police were also putting up random checkpoints in the city's exit and entry points. With reports from Julie S. Alipala, Anthony S. Allada, Ayan C. Mellejor, and Inquirer wires