3 charged in Zamboanga bombing

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - Authorities filed double murder and frustrated murder charges against three suspected accomplices of the Abu Sayyaf bomber who detonated a car bomb in Zamboanga City on Friday. 

Police Superintendent Ariel Huesca, commander of the police Public Safety Company and spokesman of the City Police Office, said the case were filed Monday against Hadja Babylyn Jul Ismael Muallam, Isharly Muallam and  Aldamer Sahibuddin.

Huesca said the suspects were initially invited for questioning after police forces conducted a raid Friday night, hours after the powerful car bomb explosion killed two people and injured 54 others.

He said tracking police and military forces traced the house where the suspected bomber allegedly assembled the explosive in the house in a subdivision in Sitio Talungon, Barangay San Roque.

Huesca said the suspected bomber escaped prior to the arrival of the raiding police force. 

Muallam denied any participation in the bombing, citing that they have no knowledge of the activity of the suspected bomber whom she could only identify as a certain Nadj.

Police recovered  one M16 Armalite rifle, a long magazine, 17 pieces live ammunition of 5.56 millimeters, electric testers, two dry cell batteries, assorted cut wires, a mobile phone, a cellular phone charger, an earphone and a gallon of mineral water with gas.

“The three arrested suspects were not directly the ones who planted the car bomb but we believe they have knowledge on the incident because the bomb was assembled inside the house compound following the recovery of the evidence,” Huesca said.

He said authorities continued to track down the suspect who might have already fled out of the city.