Davao blast suspect falls
A WEEK before the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit of leaders in Manila, the military announced the arrest of a suspected terrorist linked to two bombings that killed 23 people in Davao City in 2003.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Public Affairs Office yesterday identified the captured suspect as Abdul Manap Mentang, a former member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Special Operations Group who was reportedly part of a 15-member group trained in 1995 in basic demolition for urban terrorism by the shadowy regional network Jemaah Islamiyah.
He was arrested last Nov. 11 in a joint military and police operation in Barangay Panatan, Pigcawayan, in North Cotabato on Wednesday by virtue of separate warrants issued by courts in Davao and Cotabato cities for multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder, the AFP said.
Mentang is now held by the Philippine National Police in Davao for alleged involvement in the Sasa Wharf and Ecoland terminal bombing in Davao City in 2003 that killed 23 civilians and injured 127 others.
Mentang was previously arrested in Sta. Ana, Manila, in October 2004 but was released after three months after a court found evidence against him lacking, the AFP report said.
