3 suspected JI men captured

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Authorities have arrested three terror suspects, including one who confessed to working with the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) group, officials said yesterday.

The three Filipinos were wanted for deadly terror bombings in the country’s restive South and all face multiple murder charges, said Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Arturo Lomibao.

All three — identified as Norodin Mangelen, Pedro Guiamat Hamsa, alias Elmer Emran, and Ali Kangkong Salipada, alias Suaib Ali — are suspected of planting improvised explosive devices in southern cities in attacks that killed dozens of civilians in 2001 to 2003, Lomibao told reporters.

All three face charges of multiple murder.

Mangelen, a principal suspect in the December 2004 bombing in this city’s public market that killed 15 people, confessed during interrogation that he was a local liaison for JI and the leader of a terror cell, Lomibao said.

"The suspects are part of a local JI cell operating in Mindanao," said Chief Superintendent Ismael Rafanan, PNP intelligence chief.

Lomibao said Mangelen was arrested in his safehouse in Barangay Broce, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao last June 16.

Mangelen led police to Hamsa and Salipada who were subsequently nabbed here last June 16 and 20, respectively.

Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza, chief of the Armed Forces Southern Command, said the three underwent tactical interrogation before they were presented to Lomibao here yesterday.

Braganza said Mangelen, who was also tagged in the murder of Gregorio Banal, a mayoralty candidate in Tampakan, South Cotabato in the 2004 polls, had maintained safehouses here and in Polomolok, South Cotabato.

Police and military units have launched a manhunt for a fourth suspect, Jabide Abdul, whom they described as a JI bomb expert based in Mindanao who allegedly provided the explosives for the Davao and General Santos blasts.

Earlier this month, authorities said they were searching in Mindanao for two suspected Indonesian terrorists blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings where 202 people were killed.

The two — Umar Patek and Pitono, also known as Dulmatin — are among 40 Indonesians belonging to JI believed to be involved in jungle terror training of local Muslim insurgents, officials said. — With Cecille Suerte Felipe