Ex-cop admits links to Davao blast

COTABATO CITY—A former policeman arrested with four other suspected members of the Maute group in Maguindanao last week admitted his participation in the September 2 Davao City night market blast that killed 15 people and wounded 67 others.

Jessy Original (not Orihinal as earlier reported) said he served as a lookout during the bomb attack. He said he stayed inside a vehicle not far from Roxas Avenue, where the night market was located.

“In the planning (of bombing), I was tasked to serve as a lookout,” Original, now detained in the holding cell of the Criminal Detection and Investigation Group of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao here, told reporters.

He said his task was to alert his companions on the presence of policemen while they planted the explosive.

Original,  formerly connected with the Antipolo Police Office, also told reporters that he actively participated in the February and November attacks in Butig, Lanao del Sur and fought alongside Maute group members against government forces.

He said he and other Maute members left Butig for the mountains of Cararao on the border of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao to evade government forces pursuing them from Butig.

“We hid in the mountains, we proceeded to the hinterlands of Barira,” he said.

Original was arrested with suspected Maute members Ibrahim Arumpac, Hamza Bagul, Musa Rasamallah and Mohammad Said Biniday, in Barangay (village) Nabalawag in Barira, Maguindanao on Thursday last week.

Senior Supt. Agustin Tello, the Maguindanao police chief, said the suspects also had at least six vehicles—a Toyota Tamaraw FX (ULB-358), a gray Mitsubishi Adventure (DSL-162), a white Mitsubishi Montero (AEX-783), a white Toyota Fortuner (TDQ-440), a silver Toyota Fortuner (TQK-892) and a van—when arrested.

He said the joint police and Army team acted on a tip about the presence of Maute supporters in the area.

Members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Barira also helped find the suspects, Tello said.

Original, a Muslim convert, said he wanted to be detained and tried in Antipolo so his family could visit him. RAM/rga