Ex-hostages tag Abu suspects

Former hostages yesterday identified as their tormentors while in captivity four of the alleged Abu Sayyaf terrorists recently arrested by the police for allegedly planning to launch bombing attacks in Metro Manila.

Police finally presented the six suspects to the media and tagged the men as part of a group allegedly on a mission to bomb 46 targets in Metro Manila, including the embassies of the United States and Israel.

Philippine National Police (PNP) Intelligence Directorate chief Director Robert Delfin said the six suspects were plotting to bomb shopping malls, commuter trains and television stations.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said the US Department of Justice wanted one of the suspects to face trial in the United States for murder and kidnapping of American citizens.

Police hauled the six handcuffed suspects before television cameras in their first public appearance since their arrest late last month, when more than 50 kilos of trinitrotoluene (TNT) and other bomb components were allegedly seized from them.

Several former hostages positively identified four of the suspects as their captors during the police lineup.

The four were identified as Alhamsar Manatad Limbong, alias Kosovo; Redento Cain Dellosa; Abdulrasid Banjeng Lim, alias Abu Haifa, and Radzmar Sangkula Jul Hassa, alias Michael Saavedra.

The former hostages left out two other suspects, Walter Villanueva and Marvin Vincent Denso Rueda. Both were arrested for allegedly supplying the explosives to the group.

Angie Montealegre, one of a group of tourists abducted by the gunmen from a posh resort in Palawan in May 2001 and held for a month before being ransomed, later approached the suspects she had picked out and slapped two of them.

Filipino diving instructor Ronald Ullah, who was abducted by the Abu Sayyaf in 2000 along with several foreigners in the island resort of Sipadan in Malaysia, together with travel writer Buddy Recio, his wife Divine; Marife Rosadenio and Joel Gillu, tagged the four suspects as among their captors.

The Recio couple pointed to Limbong as the bandit who dragged them out of their bedroom in the resort at gunpoint.

They claimed Limbong also bragged to them during their captivity as having fired an anti-tank rocket during the Lamitan siege in Basilan in June 2001, which left a young Army officer dead.

The witnesses tagged Limbong as the executioner of the bandit group, beheading two male teachers who were among those taken hostage by the Abu Sayyaf in Sumisip town, also in Basilan.

They said Limbong executed Fr. Rhoel Gallardo after torturing him by pulling out his nails and eyes.

For his part, Ullah, who was held captive by the bandits for two years in Basilan, pointed to Dellosa as the one who usually gave him a massage whenever he got sick.

"I know the four because they were my companions for almost two years in the mountains. These people destroyed my life and that of my family," Ullah said.

Ullah and the Recio couple also appealed to critics not to give political color to the arrest of the Abu Sayyaf suspects.

"We appeal to critics not to use money for press releases belying the identity of these people. We tell you, we have been with these people in the mountains because these were the very people who abducted us," Recio said.

Notoriety Spreads

The Abu Sayyaf, a small group of Muslim rebels waging a bombing and kidnapping campaign in southern Mindanao for a decade, have been linked by the US and Filipino governments to the al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah groups behind the World Trade Center and Bali bomb attacks.

"They were caught in possession of these TNT so they were charged with illegal possession of explosives," said Delfin.

He told a news conference that the six suspects have pending arrest warrants for murder and kidnapping.

Delfin said the group was sent to Manila by Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khaddafi Janjalani to carry out "Madrid-level" bombings in Metro Manila.

Announcing the arrests last week, President Arroyo said the government had prevented what she described as "Madrid-level" attacks, referring to the March 11 bombing of commuter trains in the Spanish capital that claimed nearly 200 lives.

A list of specific targets was found in the wallet of Limbong, and the police have "informed the concerned establishment to take extra precautions," Delfin added.

He said the explosives came from Mindanao and shipped to Manila hidden in fruit crates.

Apart from the two embassies, Delfin said among the targets listed are the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), Sual power plant in Pangasinan, Pandacan oil depot in Manila, the Philippine Stock Exchange building in Pasig City, World Trade Center along Roxas Boulevard in Manila, the House of Representatives and the Senate buildings, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) main office in Pasig City, the SM Shoemart chain of shopping malls and the Light Railway Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) commuter trains and stations.

Delfin said the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City was also included as a target along with the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City, telecommunication offices and churches.

In the same news conference, PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. stressed the government was able to thwart attempts to carry out terror attacks in Metro Manila with the arrest of the six Abu Sayyaf suspects.

"The arrests of the suspects... also served as an assurance to the public of the readiness and secure environment going into the Holy Week," Ebdane said.

In a related development, a government prosecutor told the same news conference that American missionary Gracia Burnham will be called to testify for the prosecution of the arrested Abu Sayyaf suspects.

State Prosecutor Nestor Lazaro said Mrs. Burnham was given the assurance through the US Embassy in Manila to cooperate and testify against her former captors.

"Not only (that she will testify). She had given the assurance. We have constant communication with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding the developments of this case. They are interested because the case involved their nationals," Lazaro said.

He said Mrs. Burnham is expected to visit the country in June to testify against the Abu Sayyaf.

Burnham detailed her ordeal with the Abu Sayyaf in her book "In the Presence of My Enemies," which also narrates how her husband Martin and Filipina nurse Edibora Yap were killed during a rescue operation by the Philippine military.

Lazaro particularly mentioned Limbong as among those listed by the US government in their most wanted terrorists. He also stressed the Philippine government has a strong case against the suspects.

"They have a photograph of Kosovo (Limbong) listed in their wanted lists," he said.

The NBI, through Interpol chief Ricardo Diaz, added Limbong will also be the subject of extradition proceedings by the US government.

"The (extradition) request is just (for) formality. He (Limbong will be) also charged here and the local charges take precedence," said Diaz.

Diaz said officials of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are set to arrive next week to identify Limbong and the other suspects in the killing of American tourist Guillermo Sobero and the kidnap of the Burnham couple.

Authorities tagged Limbong as the one who allegedly beheaded Sobero.

Meanwhile, Ebdane said Dellosa would be put on the witness stand in an inquiry into the fire that destroyed SuperFerry 14 in Manila Bay on Feb. 27, killing about 100 people.

Police said Dellosa, a recent convert to Islam, had boasted to neighbors that he smuggled a homemade bomb hidden inside a television set aboard the ferry, triggering the fire.

Coast Guard investigators, on the other hand, said they have no conclusions yet on the cause of the blaze.

Commenting on Dellosa’s claim, which the suspect repeated before police investigators after his arrest, Ebdane told reporters: "There was some collated information prior to that and the intelligence community has been working on some other projects.

"But that statement triggered the concentration of efforts toward these arrests," Ebdane said.

Ebdane believes the "principal actors" of the bomb plot have all been taken into custody, but the investigation is being expanded to determine "how they were trained, where they were trained, and who conducted the training." - With Cecille Suerte Felipe, AFP