Exec on drug list linked to bombing

A MEMORIAL for victims of the Sept. 2 bombing in the night market in Davao City stands on the site where 14 people were killed and at least 70 others were wounded. KARLOS MANLUPIG/INQUIRER MINDANAO

COTABATO CITY—The Maguindanao town vice mayor arrested by antidrug policemen outside the Cotabato Airport in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao province, is suspected of masterminding the Sept. 2 bomb attack in Davao City that killed 14 people and left at least 70 others wounded, one of the mayor’s relatives said.

The terror attack had earlier been linked to the criminal group Abu Sayyaf, but the group had denied any role in the bombing although it had vowed to retaliate for the escalation of military offensives against it.

Morsheed Manepel, the younger brother of Vice Mayor Abdul Wahab Sabal of Talitay town, Maguindanao, told reporters here that the family received information that his brother is being linked to the night market bombing.

“We have information from the police and some people that he is being linked to the bombing,” Manepel said.

Marwan’s son

Manepel added that, based on the information that has reached the family, his brother was supposed to have hired a son of slain Malaysian terrorist Marwan to execute the bomb plot.

He said the family has no idea why Sabal is being linked to the bombing but denied that any member of the family knows Marwan’s son.

Philippine National Police Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa had theorized that the bombing could be the work of students of Marwan (Zulfikli bin Hir), who was killed in a police operation that killed 44 elite police commandos in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao.

No one or group has publicly owned up to the bombing, leading to speculations about who is or are behind it.

Among the theories that was put forward, according to Dela Rosa, is that the bombing could be the work of drug lords in retaliation for President Duterte’s brutal campaign to put an end to the drug trade.

Manepel said the family wants to talk with Sabal but is not aware where he had been taken by police following his arrest.

“We are calling on authorities to allow us to speak to our brother,” said Manepel. “We don’t know where he is now. We want to know his condition,” Manepel added.

Senior Supt. Jimmy Daza, the head of the police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, on Thursday confirmed that authorities had indeed arrested Sabal but did not provide further details, including the reason for Sabal’s arrest.

Sabal and his elder brother, Mayor Montasir Sabal, also of Talitay, were among those identified by Mr. Duterte as “narco-politicians” on Aug. 7.

Montasir had admitted he was once involved in the drug trade but added that he had abandoned his life of crime.

In June, Sabal’s wife, PO3 Lilibeth Sabal, was shot dead by motorcycle-riding men while she and three others were on board a car that was parked beside the national highway in Tacurong City, Maguindanao.

The Sabal siblings initially surrendered to Senior Supt. Nickson Muksan, the Maguindanao police director.

The day after meeting with Muksan, the siblings appeared before Dela Rosa in Camp Crame, the PNP headquarters, and denied involvement in drugs in front of the PNP chief. Jeoffrey Maitem, Inquirer Mindanao with Inquirer Research