‘Bomber’s Plan B target was Akbar’s house’
By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 07:13pm (Mla time) 11/20/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- A former town mayor from Basilan has been arrested and is being investigated for his possible involvement in last week‘s bomb attack on the Batasan Pambansa that killed Basilan Representative Wahab Akbar and three other people, a spokesman of the Philippine Army said.

At the same time, Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres Jr., Army public affairs chief, said the bombers allegedly planned to attack Wahab’s house in a push Pasig City subdivision had they failed to kill him at the Batasan.

Torres said Hajaron Jamiri, former mayor of Tuburan town and a political foe of Akbar, has been transferred to the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Camp Crame on Tuesday afternoon for inquest proceedings after being originally detained at the Intelligence Security Group (ISG) compound at Army headquarters in Fort Bonifacio.

In an earlier interview, Torres had refused to name the former mayor.

Police are readying charges of illegal possession of firearms against Jamiri, officials said.

Jamiri was arrested for carrying an unlicensed .45 caliber pistol around 3 p.m. Monday, some 75 meters from the Don Pepe Inn in Manila's Malate district.

Police and military intelligence operatives raided the inn three hours later Torres after three alleged Abu Sayyaf members who have been charged with multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder before the Department of Justice (DoJ) for the Batasan bombing led the raiding team there, Torres said.

The bomb that was to have been used for "Plan B" of the plot on Akbar was allegedly assembled at the inn, where Jamiri was billeted, Torres said.

Although no actual bomb was recovered in the raid, a security aide of Jamiri, Halik Usman, was arrested while a motorcycle, a helmet and a jacket, all of which bore traces of chemicals known to be used for making bombs were seized. But Usman was later released for lack of evidence, Torres said.

Superintendent Joaquin Alva of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Manila had earlier said bomb experts checked the room occupied by Usman and found traces of nitrate.

“It means an IED (improvised explosive device) was made there. Or at least, the room was exposed to explosive material."

Asked if Jamiri is being investigated over the Batasan attack, Torres said: "He may. Why was he in that place which was identified by the suspects?"

But a police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they have yet to establish if Jamiri was involved in the Batasan bombing.

Torres said the three Abu Sayyaf suspects, who were arrested in a raid on a house in Payatas in which three other suspects died in a shootout, told investigators that "there could be others [in the inn] who could be involved in the plan" to kill Akbar.

"The information we got is that the explosive that will be used on Akbar's house was being prepared there," the spokesman said.

Asked if the alleged attack on Akbar's residence was a back-up plan in case the Batasan bombing failed, Torres said: "That's the information that we got."

Torres added that the traces of bomb components found during the raid "supports that allegation" even if no actual bomb was seized.

Asked if more raids in connection with the Batasan bombing could be expected, Torres said: "Our operations are continuing, many revelations are cropping up in the course of our interrogation."

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