Highly reliable sources told The STAR that the bomb experts from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Australian federal police are the same probers who looked into the Oct. 12, 2002 bombing in Bali, Indonesia that killed more than 200 people, including 89 Australians.
The foreign investigators are set to arrive after a Sultan Kudarat court issued warrants of arrest for Moro Islamic Liberation Front chairman Hashim Salamat and 91 of his cohorts in connection with the Dec. 31, 2002 bombing in Tacurong City where nine people were killed and 44 wounded.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) also announced that other arrest orders are expected to be issued against Salamat and other MILF leaders for their alleged involvement in the airport bombing here.
Official sources refused to confirm or deny the arrival of the American and Australian investigators after President Arroyo gagged military and police officials from divulging findings on the airport bombing investigation.
"As the crisis manager, (Davao City) Mayor (Rodrigo) Duterte has the authority to say what he wants but (as to) the military and police, I have instructed them that they’re not supposed to leak any preliminary, tentative findings that result in a lot of confusion," Mrs. Arroyo said in an impromptu press briefing she herself called.
The President issued the order to the joint military-police task force, headed by military Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya and Philippine National Police (PNP) Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay.
"Being transparent does not mean we have to talk about the initial results of the investigation while it is ongoing. In fact, I have told the military and police, they should not telegraph the preliminary results of the investigations," she added.
The President said she herself would brief the media to update the public on developments on the case.
"We’ll meet with you during this difficult time as often as I can so that there’ll be no temptation for others to fill gaps by giving piecemeal and speculative statements just to be able to feed the beasts," the President said even as she appealed for "inter-faith understanding."
"We still continue to hope for inter-faith understanding... (so we will) not fall into the trap that some would want us to fall into which is to turn it into a religious war which it’s not. It is law enforcement. It is fighting terrorism," she stressed.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer signed in Canberra on March 4 an agreement to improve security, intelligence and police cooperation against terrorism.
Hours later, a bomb ripped through a waiting shed at the airport here, the nation’s worst terrorist attack since the Rizal Day bombing on Dec. 30, 2000 that left at least 22 people dead and nearly a hundred wounded.
In Canberra, Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty said that he had been speaking regularly with PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. since last week.
"I have been in constant communication, if you like, with General Ebdane," Keelty told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Keelty added that he and Ebdane spoke with Indonesian police chief Gen. Da’i Bachtiar, who was also in Canberra last week when Ebdane was there to work out details of the RP-Australia security cooperation activities.
"Between the three of us we discussed at the higher level in terms of operations what connections might exist between what’s going on between Indonesia and also the Philippines," Keelty said.
He did not specifically mention the bomb experts who would be arriving here to help local investigators but sources said the Americans and Australians would be limited to the forensic aspects of the probe.
"These foreign bomb experts would most probably help in the post-blast and forensic investigation. They will help determine exactly what type of bomb was used and other aspects of the forensic examination of what were found in the blast site," the source said.
Tatah Abdulfattah Pananggolon, who was arrested by the military over the weekend, said Salamat ordered him and five other MILF members to bomb vital civil and military installations.
"We were ordered by Chairman Salamat to carry out bombings of civilian and military targets, bridges as diversionary attacks," Pananggolon told reporters at the Camp Siongco headquarters of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in Cotabato City.
The suspect also tagged a certain Abdul Nasser Bantilah as leader of the group that was responsible for the Feb. 20 bombing at the Cotabato airport that killed a soldier and wounded more than a dozen others.
Judge Melanio Guerrero of the Second Municipal Circuit Trial Court (MCTC) of Sultan Kudarat issued warrants of arrest against Salamat and 91 MILF extremists for the Tacurong City bombing.
Aside from Salamat, Guerrero ordered the arrest of MILF vice chairman for political affairs Ghadzali Jaafar, vice chairman for military affairs Ibrahim Al Haj Murad, spokesman Eid Kabalu and 91 other MILF members who are suspected to have been involved in the Tacurong City bombing.
About a hundred people were milling about the "firecracker zone" in the Tacurong City plaza on New Year’s Eve last year when a grenade exploded at about 7:20 p.m. Victims and former MILF members said the attack was ordered by Salamat.
Justice Undersecretary Jose Calida said in Manila that one of the indictees has already died while only one is under police custody.
Calida said the Davao City regional trial court is also expected to issue arrest orders for Salamat and other MILF leaders for their alleged involvement in the airport bombing.
"I understand the court will raffle off the case on Tuesday and the warrants would be issued on Wednesday," said Davao City assistant city prosecutor Danilo Belo. — With John Unson, Marichu Villanueva, Aurea Calica, AFP