Egyptian national mistakenly arrested?

COTABATO CITY — Local police and military officials here are certain that their counterparts in Camp Aguinaldo made a mistake in arresting Egyptian national Hassan Bakry, a poor firewood vendor in Datu Piang, Maguindanao, on suspicion of having links with international terrorist organizations.

Local leaders in Datu Piang, where Bakry resides, said independent organizations, including the Commission on Human Rights, must investigate on the real personality of the foreigner, who has no derogatory record in the municipality.

Soldiers, led by AFP intelligence operatives from Camp Aguinaldo, barged into Bakry’s house in a dawn raid last week, dragged him into a waiting vehicle and spirited him to Manila. He has lost contact with his family since.

"The arrest of Bakry was not planned by military units in Maguindanao, but was planned in Camp Aguinaldo," said a military officer, who personally know Bakry, whom he said has been residing in Datu Piang since she married Rohaida Mamalimping in 1992.

Benedict Carandang, spokesman of Datu Piang Mayor Shamier Ampatuan, said Bakry’s wife and children are now being subsidized by the municipal government with their basic needs.

"We will not adopt them if Barky is an international terrorist," Carandang said.

Inspector Nestor Chio, chief of Datu Piang police, said Bakry, a bankrupt businessman, first arrived in Datu Piang in the early 1990s, convinced to settle there by local religious leader Zacaria Balabadan.

Bakry’s wife said it was for lack of money that Bakry, after failing in his job placement business, never had the chance to return to Egypt.

Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye reassured Barky’s family yesterday that he would be accorded due process as provided for in Philippine laws.

Bunye maintained that authorities who have arrested Barky were well within the bounds of law in placing him under detention as a suspected terrorist.

"We would like to make it clear that the Philippine government is not singling out any particular nationality as far as the anti-terrorism drive is concerned. But we have obligations to the people and to the nation to safefuard everyone," Bunye stressed.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Terrorism Task Force (ATF) has yet to come up with a solid proof to pin down Bakry for his alleged links with the terror group.

The ATF accused Bakry as a bomb and explosive instructor of terrorists in Central Mindanao who also allegedly fougnt alongside the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) during the siege of Camp Abubakar four years ago. — with Marichu Villanueva, Jaime Laude