Cotabato City man confesses involvement in trade of high-powered guns, IED

COTABATO CITY, Philippines –- The man arrested last Friday for possessing high powered guns and improvised explosive devices has admitted to police authorities he was in the bomb and gunrunning business.

Suspect Rahib Pelandoc Guialudin, who was interviewed by a local TV station on Saturday, said he has confessed to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (CIDG-ARMM) that he was to deliver the assorted high powered firearms and improvised bomb to a “contact buyer” in Davao Oriental when arrested by lawmen in Datu Paglas, Maguindanao.

Aside from the bomb, Guialudin also yielded three cal. 50 Berretta sniper rifles, an M-16 rifle and cal. 45 pistol when police cornered him Friday in Barangay (village) Madidis.

“Those firearms were not mine. I ventured into gunrunning and bomb selling because I am unemployed, I am an ordinary farmer,” Guialudin told a local TV station in Filipino Saturday.

He said he bought the sniper rifle for P20,000 and would sell it at P25,000 to a contact buyer in Davao Oriental.

On the other hand, he said he bought the IED, which was fashioned from 60 mm mortar, from a certain “Toto” of Barangay Pagatin, Datu Salibo, Maguindanao, known bailiwick of the renegade Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) to be delivered to a buyer in Davao Oriental.

Improvised bombs that had cell phones as trigger mechanism were a signature armament of BIFF, a breakaway group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, against the military in Maguindanao.

Guialudin was arrested while his companion, Nadzir Pakasi Mongkas, was killed when he shot it out with arresting CIDG-ARMM elements.

Both were riding on a multi-cab en route to Davao City when flagged down by government forces in Barangay Madidis.

Days earlier, government agents had received a tip the two would transport explosives from Datu Paglas to Davao City.

Guialudin is currently detained at the CIDG-ARMM headquarters in Cotabato City.

Earlier police reports said Guialudin was a member of “Tamengkog group” engaged in bomb making and gun selling in Maguindanao and nearby provinces.

He refused to talk about the rash of bombings in Cotabato City, Maguindanao and North Cotabato.