Suspect: Indon JI leader in RP

DAVAO CITY — The leader of a Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist cell operating in Mindanao revealed yesterday there is a clear link between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the JI regional terror group.

Sammy Abdulgani, 24, one of four suspected JI militants arrested last week, told The STAR he had known of JI’s presence at Camp Abubakar since 1998 when he started his training at the MILF’s former enclave in Parang, Maguindanao.

"I just did not know they were JI because they were among the foreign ustadzhs (preachers) who gave the training. And the Jemaah Islamiyah was not yet that known at the time," Abdulgani said in an interview here.

"I knew the two groups were one, they were not separate," said Abdulgani, who was once a close-in security aide of the late MILF chairman Hashim Salamat.

Abdulgani, however, was quick to point out that he joined JI on his own volition and not on orders of MILF leaders. JI, whose leaders are based in Indonesia, has been linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network.

Abdulgani and his alleged cohorts were arrested Friday following intelligence reports that they were tasked to carry out bombing missions in several ports in Mindanao.

Abdulgani told the STAR that an Indonesian known as Usman is calling the shots in JI’s terror missions in the country.

He confessed he was paid P10,000 to carry out Usman’s latest order to bomb various ports in Mindanao prior to their arrest.

Abdulgani said he received training in bombmaking last year from three Indonesian JI leaders, one of whom was Usman. The other two were only known to him as Zulkifli and Abraham.

While Zulkifli and Abraham have already been arrested, Usman, he said, remains to be the one who supervises and provides funding to JI operations in the country.

Usman is still in the country and he moves around, he said.

"But I don’t think they could operate that much now since security has been tightened in most places which they target," said Abdulgani.

The MILF has repeatedly denied coddling JI members and denounced allegations that it is involved in terrorist activities.

The MILF has demanded the release of the four alleged JI militants, saying they are regular members of the MILF.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu lashed at the government for the arrest, noting it went against a ceasefire agreement it signed with Manila that set the parameters for peace talks being brokered by Malaysia.

In stressing that authorities have proof against the arrested terror suspects, President Arroyo challenged yesterday the MILF leadership to raise its claim before the ceasefire monitoring committee, which she said is the proper forum to settle the issue.

The President also directed her adviser on the peace process and the head of the government panel negotiating with the MILF to show evidence before the committee against the alleged captured terrorists.

Rebuffing the MILF’s demand to release the suspects, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) maintained it has the evidence against them.

AFP vice chief Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia revealed yesterday that two of the men admitted during interrogation that they were connected with Taufiq Rifqi, an Indonesian arrested last year on suspicion of handling finances for JI operatives and organizing explosives training in the Philippines.

Abdulgani admitted he remained an active MILF member while at the same time leading a terrorist cell of six members, including the three others who were arrested with him last Friday.

He confirmed that Montasser Ismael, Datu Puti Ungka and Barudin Dalungan are all MILF members. The two others in his group remain at large, he said.

Abdulgani confessed having perpetrated the bombings last year at the Awang airport in Cotabato City and the subsequent explosion at a bus terminal in Parang, Maguindanao. He said he took orders from Usman.

"I received orders from Usman through the cellphone and he sends money through the ATM. That is how we operate and I do not know what the others were doing. But I think that is also how he supervises the entire operation," Abdulgani said.

He added that his receiving orders directly from Usman made him feel in control of the situation. "I want to get all his orders so that I know how to control the situation. I have been receiving many orders before to bomb many places but I always had a reason not to carry them out because of the many people, and especially Muslims, around," he said.

‘Torn between JI, MILF’

Abdulgani confessed having felt torn at times between his being a JI militant and a separatist rebel of the MILF.

But he said that while he works for the Jemaah Islamiyah, his heart is still with the MILF, which for decades has been fighting to secede from the Philippines.

"Ang trabaho ko at gawa ko sa pagbobomba ay JI, pero ang puso ko ay MILF (Making bombs is for JI but my heart is really with the MILF)," Abdulgani said.

"The MILF has peace talks and ceasefire with government while the JI does not think of any ceasefire and all it wants is just to bomb and bomb places and people," he said.

Abdulgani reasoned what drives him to carry out bombing missions is to avenge the humiliation and ill-treatment many Muslims like him receive from most people.

"Ginagawa ko lahat iyon para gumanti sa mga pang-aapi sa mga Muslim. At saka para hindi maging peaceful ang Mindanao (I did all those to avenge the ill-treatment on Muslims. And if Mindanao is not peaceful) people will see the injustice and persecution done to Muslims)," he said.

Abdulgani, who received a degree in Bachelor of Science major in community development from the Polytechnic College in Cotabato City, tried applying for a job after graduating from his four-year course.

He was not hired by the Department of Agriculture in Central Mindanao, he said, because he did not have a backer to get him in.

It was his older sister, Rowena, who asked him to learn new skills in preparation for a possible job abroad.

Abdulgani said he first visited Camp Abubakar in 1996 and returned in 1998 when he underwent training in a Madrassah school near the camp’s public market.

But he decided to further gain knowledge by attending another training at the nearby Camp Vietnam, also within Camp Abubakar. It was there that he underwent military and "Islamization" training where the principles of jihad were taught.

He admitted having formally become a JI member in February 2003 when the government launched a massive offensive at Buliok complex in Pikit, North Cotabato.

"That was the time that Usman, Zulkifli and Abraham asked me if I want further training in bombmaking and they taught me how to make carbombs," Abdulgani recalled.

And while he trained in bombmaking, explosive materials were also being delivered since last year to his safehouse and boardinghouse in Cotabato City. "Sekreto talaga ang pagkagawa at pagcarry out noon (Bombmaking of course and carrying out our mission had to be done secretly)," he said.