Deeper investigation sought: SPDA explosion linked to assumption of new head?

COTABATO CITY — Maguindanaoan leaders are calling for a deeper investigation into last week’s explosion inside the offices of the Southern Philippines Development Authority (SPDA) in Davao City.

They expressed fears that the incident may have something to do with the assumption today of a fellow Maguindanaoan, who has survived two assassination attempts by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), as the new administrator of the SPDA.

Brig. Gen. Roy Kyamko, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said their intelligence units in Region 11 will assist the police in securing the SPDA premises in Mintal, Davao City as engineer Zamzamin Ampatuan, executive director of the Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA), takes over the agency’s helm.

Habib Mujahab Hashim, who belongs to the Council of 15, the new central leadership of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), will replace Ampatuan at OMA.

Chief Superintendent Eduar—do Matillano, Region 11 police director, said probers have determined that the bombing suspect, Ustadz Najeeb Rasul, belongs to the MNLF.

But Ampatuan’s relatives here, among them Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan, said the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group should investigate whether Rasul has links with the MILF.

"Gov. Ampatuan and his constituent-mayors in Maguin—danao want that incident investigated. There are overwhelming speculations about it and only an extensive investigation will determine the real scenario," said engineer Norie Unas, Maguin—danao provincial administrator, speaking on the governor’s behalf.

The new SPDA head, a close relative of Public Works and Highways Secretary Simeon Datumanong, was previously sentenced to death by the MILF’s Sharia court for being critical of the front in his commentaries on radio station dxMS here prior to his assumption as OMA director.

Last year, Ampatuan survived an ambush by suspected MILF rebels on a busy street here, which left one of his military escorts dead and three others, including himself, wounded.

Preceding the ambush was a bomb blast inside the premises of dxMS, owned by the Notre Dame Broadcasting Corp., just as Ampatuan was entering the radio station’s building to host his radio program.

Davao City probers said Rasul, a Tausog, lost his right hand in the SPDA blast.

The explosive, fashioned from incendiary substances rigged with an improvised blasting device, reportedly went off inside Rasul’s room at the SPDA guesthouse.

The Mindanao Cross, a Catholic newspaper here, quoted Matillano as saying that Rasul, an SPDA consultant, was an appointee of outgoing administrator Randolph Parcasio.

Rasul and Parcasio are both known here as among the remaining loyal followers of Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Nur Misuari, whom the Council of 15 ousted as MNLF chairman early this year due to loss of trust and confidence in his leadership.