Probers say there’s a third suspect in Mangudadatu convoy bomb attack

MANILA, Philippines — Special Investigation Task Group Pareñas said on Friday that there was a third suspect in the Tacurong City blast last Monday that hit a vehicle in Maguindanao Governor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu’s convoy and left two dead and several others wounded.

Sultan Kudarat police chief Senior Superintendent Danilo Peralta stated that witnesses told the investigators that there was a third suspect, whom witnesses said was with Datu Karim Masdal, who also went by the name Alibara Masdal, when he left the car bomb along the road. He said that authorities did not catch the suspect when they got to the area, unlike Masdal, who they arrested minutes after the explosion.

Peralta said that Masdal denied having a hand in staging the explosion, claiming he was at the area to buy fish.

Masdal faces charges of double murder and multiple frustrated murder, said the chief of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations in Western Mindanao Director Felicisimo Khu.

Masdal was identified by witnesses as the man who left the car bomb before it exploded, said Philippine National Police officer-in-charge Deputy Director General Nicanor Bartolome.

Peralta said that SITG Pareñas was now focused on hunting down Jay R. Reyes, the alleged buyer of the Kia Avella used as a car bomb, and the third suspect they were yet to identify.

He also said that they were currently busy with follow-up operations and were prioritizing locating Reyes and discovering his true identity.

Bartolome recently disclosed that investigators believed that Reyes’ name may be fictitious as they found no records on him at the Land Transportation Office, civil registry, Social Security System, and Commission on Elections.

The roadside explosion hit the third vehicle in Mangudadatu’s convoy last Monday. The governor and several others were on their way to celebrate his birthday when the explosion happened.

The blast killed two persons, one of them board member Datu Rusman Sinsuat Sr.