X-ray technician among foiled bombers, PNP says

Mohammad Jumao-as is presented to reporters at Camp Crame following his arrest for his alleged involvement in last week’s planting of a bomb on Roxas Boulevard, Manila. He was arrested at the Bulacan hospital where he worked after he went there to get his belongings. —EDWIN BACASMAS

With the help of social media, the Philippine National Police arrested the third suspect being linked to the improvised explosive device found near the United States Embassy in Manila on Nov. 28.

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Oscar Albayalde presented on Wednesday Mohammad Jumao-as alias Modie, 25, a resident of Bulakan, Bulacan, at a press briefing in Camp Crame.

Albayalde said Jumao-as, an x-ray technician, was arrested on Dec. 3 when he tried to retrieve his belongings from the hospital where he worked.

“He never left Bulakan; he just hid after the other suspects were arrested. When he thought there was a lull, he went to get his stuff but there was still a follow-up operation,” Albayalde added.

Jumao-as initially eluded the police by fleeing on his motorcycle until he was caught after a chase. Seized from him was a .45-caliber firearm and a hand grenade.

Tracked down thru FB

He was later charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives in the prosecutor’s office in Malolos City, Bulacan.

Manila Police District (MPD) director Senior Supt. Joel Coronel said investigators had checked Jumao-as’ Facebook account to look for his associates and establish his whereabouts. It also led them to the hospital where he worked as an x-ray technician.

Albayalde, meanwhile, showed reporters several screen shots of footage taken by a closed-circuit television camera at Rizal Park in Manila on Nov. 28. The clips purportedly showed Jumao-as and fellow suspects Rashid Kilala and Jiaher Guinar walking around as they looked for a place to plant the improvised explosive device (IED).

When the IED’s triggering mechanism malfunctioned, the group decided to move it, dropping it into a garbage can near the US Embassy on Roxas Boulevard, investigators said.

Extrajudicial confession

Through informants and intelligence work, the Manila police traced the suspects’ whereabouts. On Nov. 30, Kilala was arrested in Bulakan and Guinar in Caloocan City.

Albayalde said Kilala also made an extrajudicial confession with the help of a lawyer, and confessed all he knew about the bomb plot. Through him, the police learned that the IED was brought to Manila from Mindanao hidden inside a van.

According to Coronel, the MPD was determining if the group had anything to do with a fake bomb found near Manila City Hall the other day. He said it was also possible that the incident was just a prank.

Albayalde said Kilala, Guinar, Jumao-as and two other suspects who remain at large belonged to a cell of the jihadist group Ansar Al-Khilafa, a supporter of the Islamic State in the Middle East and affiliated with the Maute Group based in Lanao del Sur.

The five suspects had been members of the terror cell for about four years, the NCRPO chief added. Of the two suspects still at large, one was believed to be in Metro Manila or nearby provinces while the other had left for Mindanao, he said.