Haron Alaba, also known by his alias Abu Haron, was arrested Monday at a public market in Isabela City, the capital of Basilan, said Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero, spokesman for the Armed Forces’ Southern Command.
Lucero said investigators were trying to find out what Haron – who carried a P150,000 bounty on his head – was doing at the market.
Haron was with the band led by Hamsiraji Sali that swooped down on a village in Barangay Balobo in La-mitan on Aug. 2, 2001, and seized 21 people, Lucero said.
At least 10 of the captives, mostly males, were beheaded as the raiders fled from pursuing troops while the rest were either freed or managed to escape.
Lucero said Haron was arrested shortly after he was positively identified by witnesses. "Perhaps some of them thought they would not be recognized by the victims and the villagers," he said.
Lt. Col. Danilo Servando, Armed Forces spokesman, said Haron was collared by agents of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines armed with an arrest warrant issued by Judge Danilo Bucoy of the Ninth Regional Trial Court in Isabela City.
"He (Haron) is under the custody of the military and undergoing tactical interrogation," Servando told reporters at Camp Aguinaldo.
Officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, suspected that the Abu Sayyaf may be planning to launch attacks in Basilan to ease pressure on their comrades in nearby Sulu province.
Troops have been hunting down the Sulu faction led by Radulan Sahiron, who has been holding three Indonesian sailors and four Filipino women captive.
The Indonesians were abducted in June off Sulu while delivering coal by barge to Cebu while the women, all members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses Christian evangelist group, were kidnapped in August.
"Authorities are investigating Haron for any possible leads in the spate of bombings recently," the military said in a statement. "At present, he is under custody of the military, and undergoing tactical interrogation."
In nearby Zamboanga City, police have filed charges against five identified suspects and several unidentified "John Does" in a bombing that killed an American soldier and three others last Oct. 2 in the city, officials said yesterday.
"We filed multiple murder and frustrated murder charges before the Zamboanga City prosecutor’s office yesterday (Monday)," Superintendent Marvin Bolabola, chief of the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in the region, said in a telephone interview.
Bolabola said of five identified suspects, two are in police custody – suspected Abu Sayyaf members Abduljamin Asanul and Madznul Abdula Ladja.
Javier Umangas and Amilhamja Joe are at large, while Kenneth Pang, the registered owner of the motorcycle used in the Oct. 2 bombing, has not been arrested but is not in hiding.
Pang was included among those charged so prosecutors can ask him about his possible involvement in the blast.
Bolabola said Pang had identified Joe as the man who bought the motorcycle from him before the bombing.
Asanul and Ladja, arrested based on witness descriptions, are also suspects in the Oct. 20 bombing near Fort Pilar, a Roman Catholic Shrine in Zamboanga, that killed one person and injured 18, Bolabola added.
The explosions were among the five deadly blasts last month.
Officials said the al-Qaeda network of Saudi-born terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden provided the Abu Sayyaf with training in explosives and weapons handling in the past years.
About 1,000 US troops spent six months in Basilan earlier this year in counterterrorism exercises aimed at helping the Philippine military fight the Abu Sayyaf.
The American soldier who died in the blast at a restaurant near an army base was part of a small contingent of US troops left behind in Zamboanga after training exercises with Filipino troops.
Early next year, a US multi-million training package will commence, which would include the training and equipage of two additional light reaction companies (LRCs), training of infantry battalions and night-flying capabilities.
The activities are to be held in Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, Mactan Air Base in Cebu and in Zamboanga City. Officials however could not estimate how many Filipino and American troops would be taking part in the training package. — With Paolo Romero, AP, AFP