Ex-cop says he’s part of group behind Davao night market blast

A blast that ripped through a busy night market in Davao City on Sept. 2 killed 15 people. — KARLOS MANLUPIG

COTABATO CITY—A former policeman, who was arrested in Maguindanao province last week with four other suspected members of the Maute terror group, admitted he served as a lookout during the Sept. 2 night market bombing in Davao City that killed 15 people and wounded 67 others.

Jessy Vincent Guinto Original, a former policeman assigned in Antipolo City, said he stayed inside a vehicle not far from Roxas Avenue, where the night market operated, to alert his companions of possible police presence while they planted the explosive.

“In the planning [of the bomb attack], I was tasked to serve as a lookout,” Original told reporters at the holding cell of the police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao here.

Original, a Muslim convert, said they targeted Davao because “there are many kafirs (nonbelievers) there.”

Original and four other suspected Maute members, identified as Ibrahim Arumpac, Hamza Bagul, Musa Rasamallah and Mohammad Said Biniday, were arrested in Barangay Nabalawag in Barira town, Maguindanao on Dec. 22, said Senior Supt. Agustin Tello, Maguindanao police chief.

Original, also known as Abu Aisha, is the ninth suspect to be arrested in the Davao attack, which claimed among its victims a 12-year-old boy, his mother and a pregnant woman.

Tello said a team of soldiers and policemen nabbed the suspects at a checkpoint in Sitio Madalum in Barira after being tipped off about their presence in the area.

Butig attack

Original also told reporters he was part of an armed group that attacked Butig town in Lanao del Sur province in February and November. He said his group engaged government troops as they held Butig’s old town hall, a mosque and a madrassa for six days in November.

He said he and other Maute group members left Butig for the mountains of Cararao, in the borders of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, to evade soldiers pursuing them.

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

Tello said members of the Moro National Liberation Front and Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Barira helped them find the suspects.

Police recovered at least six vehicles from Original’s group. Original said he wanted to be tried and detained in Antipolo City so his family can visit him. —EDWIN FERNANDEZ