PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa presents the suspects who allegedly planted the bomb found near the US embassy on Monday. (image from live television footage)
The bomb planted near the US embassy in Manila Monday had originally been intended to wreak havoc at the nearby Luneta but failed to go off, Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa said Thursday as he presented the two suspects he said were supposed to carry out the plot.
Dela Rosa did not, however, say when the botched Luneta bombing was supposed to have taken place. The park was the site of a massive protest last Friday against the burial of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
At a televised briefing where he presented the suspects,Rayson Kilala Sakdal, 34, also known as Rashid Kilala, a convert to Islam who he said was the driver of the taxi in which the bomb was carried and was reported arrested in Bulakan, Bulacan, and Jamir Kinar, who runs a cellular phone repair shop in Caloocan.
The two, he said, were tasked to plant and detonate the explosive, which was transported from Mindanao by three other men, one of them also a member of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, in a Toyota Revo that the PNP chief said has since been recovered.
All five, he said, belong to a “cell” of the Maute Group, which is the target of a major military offensive in Butig, Lanao del Sur and which Dela Rosa said is linked to the Ansar al-Khalifa, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
However, the three other suspects hurriedly returned to Mindanao after they were supposedly called back to reinforce their group.
Aside from conspiracy to commit terrorism charges under the Human Security Act, Dela Rosa said Sakdal and Kinar will also be charged with illegal possession of firearms and explsoves. He explained that a .45 caliber pistol was also seized from them.
Dela Rosa said that after the failed attempt at the Luneta, Rashid the driver was bothered by his conscience and suggested that the bomb be dumped in the garbage bin.
Asked what the motive may have been for detonating the bomb in Metro Manila, Dela Rosa said it was meant to ease the pressure on the Maute Group in Butig and to persuade the Islamic State to recognize them as part of its network.
Dela Rosa said one of the two captured suspects was traced through forensic investigation of the cellular phone through which the bomb was supposed to have been triggered.
He said the two were watching television coverage of the bomb’s disarming and safe detonation by police explosives experts and had attempted to set off the device through the Caloocan suspect’s phone “but hindi sumabog kaya na-trace ang phone (but it failed to explode so the phone was traced).”
Earlier, authorities said the bomb, which had been placed in a garbage bin just a hundred meters from the US embassy on Roxas Boulevard, was similar to the one which killed 15 people are wounded scores more in Davao City on September 2.
The Maute Group was blamed for the Davao attack.
A day after the bomb was found near the embassy, the military said seven troops of the Presidential Security Group and two other soldiers from a different unit were wounded when their convoy, which was teh advance party for President Rodrigo Duterte's visit to Lanao del Sur on Wednesday, was hit by roadside bombs in Marawi City.
However, news reports quoting residents of the place where the incident happened have raised questions over what actually happened.
http://interaksyon.com/article/134833/us-embassy-bomb-originally-intended-for-luneta---dela-rosa
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