Grandeur Pepito Guerrero y Gacutam (right to left), Emmanuel San Pedro y Valencia and Sonny Yohanon y Albares are presented during inquest proceedings at the DOJ over the foiled Sept. 1 NAIA Terminal 3 car bomb attempt. (photo by Gel Francisco, InterAksyon.com)
Charges of illegal possession of explosives were filed Tuesday against the three suspects arrested for Monday’s foiled bombing attempt at the Terminal 3 of the
The inquest on Grandeur Pepito Guerrero, the self-proclaimed
general of the so-called USAFFE (United States Armed Forces in the Far East ), Emmanuel San Pedro, and Sonny Yohanon was
conducted by Assistant State Prosecutor Aristotle Reyes.
The complaint was filed by the National Bureau of
Investigation a few hours after Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, NBI Director
Virgilio Mendez and Rommel Vallejo, chief of the bureau's anti-organized crimes
transactional division held a press conference to detail the alleged campaign
the group had planned to wage.
De Lima said they were also targeting the SM Mall of Asia in
Pasay City ,
as well as the Chinese embassy and the DMCI building in Makati City
"Apparently this is a misguided group. They claim to be
defenders of the Filipino people and consider China
"They also had plans yesterday to firebomb SM Mall of
Asia in Pasay
SM Mall of Asia is owned by Henry Sy, the Philippines ' richest man who was born in China
DMCI is a construction firm owned by David Consunji, another
ethnic-Chinese Filipino who Forbes magazine lists as the sixth richest man in
the country.
Aside from the illegal possession of explosives charges, De
Lima said they are also studying the possibility of filing a case for
"conspiracy to commit terror" against the three suspects.
De Lima said the men appeared to be particularly angry over
the Philippine government's perceived "soft" stance towards China in a dispute over competing territorial
claims in the South China Sea .
"They want this administration to espouse a tougher
stance in this dispute with China
Initial investigation by the National Bureau of
Investigation (NBI) showed that the foiled NAIA bombing attempt was part of a
bigger plot by the misguided group of Guerrero. The suspects planned to use a
so-called IID (improvised incendiary device) with an impact reaching 5- to
10-meter radius and capacity to maim and kill.
De Lima said the three suspects will be prosecuted for
illegal possession of explosives under existing laws. She said the charge of
conspiracy to commit terror is still under study.
The justice secretary said the three suspects appeared to be
operating on their own but follow-up investigations are underway to determine
their real motives and scope of organization.
The group, which was reportedly planning to issue a
manifesto after the bombing campaign, also said that, if the Aquino government
fails to carry out its mandated duty to defend the country's sovereignty, then
the military should remove it and replace it with a military-run government
similar to Thailand
"We want to know how big this group is, what is their
capacity really to create all this havoc, and what is their real agenda,"
De Lima said. "Are they on their own or are there (people) behind them? We
will investigate all these."
Also seized from the suspects was a copy of a manifesto
entitled "Manipesto ng Kilusan Laban sa Pananakop" dated
Aug. 25, 2014 and was changed to Sept. 1, 2014.
De Lima noted that the group had a list of e-mail addresses
to which their manifesto would be sent if their operation had succeeded.
The DOJ chief added that Guerrero admitted that he is a
member of The Guardians, a group of mostly retired military officers.
"Government authorities are determined in doing their
work to go against these efforts," De Lima said.
She said that the NBI has an idea of the number of members
of the group but it still has to be validated.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/94539/raps-filed-vs-naia3-car-bomb-suspects-group-also-targeted-china-embassy-moa-says-de-lima
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.