Zambo airport bomber owns up

A MAN who claimed he could not read or write confessed to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that he had a hand in the explosion at the Zamboanga airport, which killed two people and wounded 22 others, including Sulu governor Sakur Tan six years ago.

During a press conference at the NBI headquarters, Addong Salahuddin, also known as Addong Salapuddin, told reporters that on August 5, 2010 he was ordered by a certain “Imam Casim” to place a bag full of explosives inside the arrival area of the airport.

In turn, Salahuddin said he gave the bag to two men—Reynaldo Apilado and his nephew Agub Apilado—and told them to leave the bag at the arrival area of the airport.

The two men were the only ones killed in the ensuing blast.

Speaking in Tagalog and Visayan, the suspect denied that the explosion was a suicide bomb attack and added that he did not know how or why the explosives detonated while the two were still carrying it.

The victims, who were told that they would be working as carpenters, did not know that the bag they were carrying contained an improvised explosive device, according to NBI director Virgilio Mendez.

Salahuddin also told the NBI that the imam responsible had been killed in a recent stabbing incident.

Mendez said the NBI was looking into reports that Salahuddin was involved in other explosions in Mindanao.

Salahuddin said that he would tell what he knew of the other bombings, “and had expressed his wish to enter the witness protection program,’’ Mendez said.