ARMM exec survives slay attempt

COTABATO CITY — Unidentified bombers attempted to kill the solicitor-general of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Sunday night, the third attempt on the lawyer’s life in four years.

The improvised explosive used in the attack was left on a tricycle parked along the road near the house of lawyer Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi. However, it detonated late and exploded only after she and her security escorts had passed through.

Police and military operatives found out that the bomb’s blasting device had exploded but failed to fully ignite its main charge of incendiary chemicals and explosive powders due to lack of circuit contact.

Responding policemen found another improvised explosive just meters away from the first bomb.

Senior Superintendent Pañares Adap, director of the city police, said they are now investigating the identities of the people responsible for the attempt to explode two bombs.

Guiani-Sayadi, a human rights lawyer, played a key role in dismantling syndicates involved in embezzling government funds in different offices in the autonomous region as part of the effort of ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan to rid the regional bureaucracy of graft and corruption.

Guiani-Sayadi, along with other legal advisers of Ampatuan, had also stripped the payroll of the region’s education department of hundreds of ghost teachers in a cleansing process that lasted until May this year.

Guiani-Sayadi said she and her security escorts were on their way home from a hotel here, where they celebrated her son’s birthday, when they noticed the tricycle parked at one side of the road leading to the subdivision where they reside.

"I believe the people behind the supposed bombing were aware that my family and me were at a nearby hotel having a party," Guiani Sayadi said.

Guiani-Sayadi, often a champion in pistol shooting competitions, is known for her critical stand against human rights abuses. She is a legal consultant to dozens of wealthy Chinese merchants in the city and surrounding towns.

Ampatuan appointed Guiani-Sayadi as ARMM’s solicitor-general in September 2005 right after he took his oath as fifth governor of the autonomous region.