Suspect in Mangudadatu car bomb attack arrested, police say

MANILA, Philippines — One of the suspects in the car bomb attack on Maguindanao Governor Esmael “Toto’’ Mangudadatu’s convoy on Monday was arrested minutes after the bombing, a police official said on Thursday.

The bomb attack killed two persons and injured several others.

Chief of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations in Western Mindanao Director Felicisimo Khu identified the suspect as Datu Karim Masdal alias Alibara Masdal who was nabbed in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat minutes after the roadside bomb attack.

Khu was unable to give further details on Masdal’s arrest but stated that the suspect, whom witnesses pointed to as the one who left the car bomb along the road before it exploded, faces charges of double murder and multiple frustrated murder.

Khu said that they did not disclose the information to the media as soon as the arrest was made because of ongoing operations.

Special Investigation Task Group Pareñas, tasked to probe the roadside bombing incident, has initially considered the suspects’ motive behind the explosion to be personal, Philippine National Police Deputy Director General Nicanor Bartolome told reporters at Camp Crame.

Bartolome said that they have yet to receive the complete details of the results of SITG Pareñas’ investigation but disclosed that the investigators have referred a case against two suspects to the fiscal’s office for inquest. He stated that based on evidence gathered by the investigators, the “attack (was) against the person of Governor Mangudadatu.”

He said that the other suspect, a man only identified as Jay R. Reyes, “until lately cannot be accounted for” by the investigators. Bartolome added that no records on Reyes were found in agencies such as the Land Transportation Office, civil registry, Commission on Elections, and the Social Security System.

Reyes was allegedly the buyer of the Kia Avella car in Davao City which was used in the roadside bombing in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat.

Mangudadatu and several others had been on their way to Tacurong City to celebrate the governor’s 43rd birthday when the explosion occurred.