Reyes, Corpus cleared in Davao City bombings

DAVAO CITY — A five-man presidential commission has cleared former Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus, former chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), of any involvement in the twin bombings that rocked this city early last year.

In a report to President Arroyo, the commission, headed by Fr. Pedro Maniwang, parish priest of Sta. Ana Shrine here, said there was no evidence linking either Reyes or Corpus to the blasts that killed 38 people and wounded over 200 others.

The panel’s findings belied allegations of the so-called "Magdalo group" behind the failed mutiny in Makati City on July 27 last year, that Reyes and Corpus had a hand in the attacks.

The release of the report coincided with the first anniversary yesterday of the blast that ripped through a crowded waiting shed outside the Davao International Airport which left 16 people dead.

The second blast occurred 28 days later at a row of food stalls at the passenger terminal gate of Sasa wharf here. Twenty-two people were killed.

The Mindanao Truth Commission, however, contradicted the Maniwang Commission’s findings, claiming there was "substantial evidence" to back the allegations of the Magdalo group.

In a 20-page document it submitted to Vice President Teofisto Guingona during a media forum in Mandaluyong City yesterday, the group said there was no evidence to link the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Abu Sayyaf or a "third force" to the twin bombings.

The Mindanao Truth Commission was created as an independent fact-finding body by the Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao, a coalition of civic and church groups that met during the Mindanao Leaders’ Peace Conference in Cagayan de Oro City in May last year.

It further claimed there was evidence that the military had a "special operation to lob grenades at mosques."

It urged the filing of charges against Maj. Rene Paje of the 4th Scout Ranger Battalion, who, three junior Army officers who joined the failed mutiny alleged, ordered them to bomb mosques in Mindanao.

The Magdalo mutineers revealed an alleged plan dubbed "Oplan Greenbase" which supposedly called for terrorist bombings which would be blamed on the MILF.

But the Maniwang Commission belied this, saying they found "Oplan Greenbase" to have been fabricated.

The commission, meanwhile, said it is not convinced that suspect Montaser Sudang was behind the airport bombing.