Military hunts down Pinoy terror cell leader

DAVAO CITY — The military is now on the manhunt for a certain "Kumander Benjie" reportedly leading a terror cell of Indonesian-based Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) in Mindanao.

"The hunt is still on for Kumander Benjie because he holds the key to the operation of the JI here in the country even with the escape of (Fathur Rohman) Al-Ghozi from Camp Crame, still Benjie is a very significant personality in the whole scheme of things with the JI here," a high-placed source from the military intelligence community told The STAR yesterday.

Benjie reportedly remained in the country with over 300 JI members after undergoing training in one of the camps of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for the past few years.

Intelligence agents have been reportedly working on the possibility that Benjie took custody of Al-Ghozi following his controversial escape from the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters last week.

"It would really give us one hell of a problem if they’re able to plot out bomb attacks again as this would give way to a fresh wave of terrorism in the country," the source said.

The source stressed they kept a tight watch on suspected JI members even before Al-Ghozi escaped.

Al-Ghozi has admitted being a bomb maker for the JI, a Jakarta-based Islamic fundamentalist group allegedly linked to the al-Qaeda terror network of Osama bin Laden.

Al-Ghozi was convicted last year after confessing to using part of a huge explosives cache to blow up the Light Railway Transit (LRT) commuter train and other targets in Metro Manila on Dec. 30, 2000, killing 22 people.

The JI has been blamed for the deadly bombing of the resort town of Bali in Indonesia which killed over 200 people in October last year.

Indonesian sources told The STAR North Sulawesi police chief Brig. Gen. Jon Lalo turned over the dossier on Benjie and other suspected JI members to Chief Superintendent Arturo Lomibao, now the newly appointed PNP-Intelligence Group officer-in-charge.

Lomibao reportedly received the dossier during a recent visit to Manado, Indonesia early this month.

A suspected JI member on trial for helping out in the bombing of a restaurant in Makassar, Indonesia last year, earlier confirmed the MILF had trained several JI members on weapons and bomb making.

Witnesses in the separate trial of alleged JI leader Abu Bakar Bashir in Jakarta also admitted undergoing MILF training.

Sources however said the main problem is locating Benjie, who is reportedly being kept in a safehouse by his supporters in the jungles somewhere in Mindanao.

"Although I understand Benjie also travels but he has his way of getting in touch with known JI cells operating in the country," the source said.