Quirante was also tagged by the police as the overseer of a terrorist training camp in Sitio Dueg and Babaelian in Barangay Maasin in San Clemente town, Tarlac which was raided recently by lawmen.
During the assault, police confiscated several high-powered firearms, ammunition, detonating cords and other explosive materials, as well as high-tech communications equipment and night-vision goggles.
Nabbed in the raid were suspected terrorists Feliciano de los Reyes alias Abubakar, an Islamic teacher who hails from Lamitan town in Basilan and a 13-year-old boy from Capas, Tarlac who was reportedly undergoing indoctrination on Islamic extremism.
De los Reyes, the boy and one Dexter Mayuno, 20, have also been charged with illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives.
Representations are underway for the boy’s transfer to the custody of the provincial social welfare and development office, the local arm of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Mayuno, a native of Ipil town in Zamboanga del Sur, was captured on May 1 after he and six other suspects engaged the police in a pre-dawn gunbattle in Barangay San Nicolas, Tarlac City.
Killed in the shootout was one Khalid Amir Trinidad, whose remains have been taken by his mother from the custody of the city police force.
Those charged with Quirante were Muslim converts Yusuf de la Cruz, Abulla Yabut alias Eric, Ohtman Serrano alias Jovert, Jacob Serna alias Joel, Abuber Serrano alias Pasaso, Yusuf Trajano alias Jenin, Isa Trajano alias Pechy, Anas Castro alias Goryo, Isa Apan alias Jesus, Omar Apang alias Lito, Omar Saplala alias Monay and a certain Abuber who also uses the alias "Roger."
Three other persons charged with Quirante were Akmad Lumarda of Quiapo, Manila, Akmad Tamayo of Baguio City and Sheik Omar of Iloilo City, all identified as Haraka radicals based in the terrorist group’s headquarters in Barangay Malong in the island-town of Anda in Pangasinan.
Quirante and the 15 respondents have remained at large and are now the object of a massive manhunt by combined police and military elements.
An earlier raid on the group’s camp in Anda also led to the confiscation of several high-powered firearms and the arrest of seven suspected trainees in terrorism.
The camp, which allegedly uses a Madrasah (Islamic school) as a front for its operations, was reportedly run by one Sheik Hamod, a Saudi national.
Police said the description on Hamod provided by arrested suspects Mayuno, De los Reyes and the 13-year-old boy fitted Sheik Hamod who was identified as an international terrorist based in Luzon in the military’s list of wanted aliens.
Hamod’s activities were being linked to the extremist Jeemah Islamiya (JI) led by radical Indonesian cleric Riduan Isamuddi, 36, alias Al-Ghosi Fais and Hambali.
JI was believed to have connections with the al-Qaeda network of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, principal suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. –Benjie Villa