Cops promoted, ‘tanods’ awarded for unmasking al-Qaeda terror group in Tarlac

By BENJIE VILLA and RACHELLE TAYONG

 CAMP MAKABULOS – On “verbal orders” of police Director General Leandro Mendoza, two policemen here were promoted to their respective next higher ranks for having uncovered an alleged local terrorist group suspected of having links with the al-Qaeda global network of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.

            At the same time, Camp Crame gave two plaques of recognition to village tanods Severino Gomez and Cristituto Gallevo, both of Barangay San Nicolas here, for immediately coordinating with lawmen the suspicious presence of seven suspected terrorists in their community last May 1.

            Promoted were SPO3 Pascual delos Reyes and PO2 Daniel Ligsay, who now have the ranks of Senior Police Officer-4 and Police Officer-3, respectively.  They then led a combined team of policemen dispatched from this police provincial headquarters and the Tarlac City police station in response to the emergency calls made by Gomez and Severino.

            The operations resulted in a pre-dawn encounter at the common transport terminal in Barangay San Nicolas that led to the killing of suspected terrorist Khalid Amir Trinidad and the arrest of another suspected extremist, Dexter Mayuno, alias Omar, a native of Ipil, Zamboanga del Sur.

            The five other suspects were then able to escape.

            Mayuno then confessed to belonging to an alleged terrorist group called Haraka (The Movement), and admitted that he and his companions planned to sow terror in Tarlac City on Labor Day by way of commandeering tricycles in order for them to lob grenades on commercial establishments and other public places.

            The arrested suspect also admitted that their group is being led by one Sheik Hamod, a Saudi national based in the island town of Anda, Pangasinan, and another Abdurakman “Abdul” Quirante, an Islamic teacher in the upland Sitio Dueg in Barangay Maasin, San Clemente, Tarlac.

            A raid in Hamod’s place in Barangay Mal-ong in Anda on May 2 revealed the alleged headquarters of Haraka, which reportedly uses a Madrasah (Islamic school) as a front, and the arrest of six suspected terrorists, as well as the confiscation of several high-powered firearms, ammunitions and explosives.

            The May 3 assault on Quirante’s upland home in San Clemente led to the discovery of an alleged terrorist training camp, and the recovery of high-powered firearms, ammunitions, ingredients and equipment for bomb-making, hi-tech communication gadgets and nigh-vision goggles.

            Nabbed from the alleged terror camp was suspected terrorist Feliciano delos Reyes, alias Abubakar, an Islamic teacher who hails from Lamitan, Basilan; and 13-year-old Niño Cariño, a first cousin of actor Robin Padilla who converted to Islam, who was reportedly undergoing indoctrination on Islamic extremism.

            Moreover, confiscated documents from the alleged terrorist headquarters and training camp were found to have been marked with “MILF” and “BIAF”, obviously referring to the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front and its armed wing, the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces.

            The Haraka is being further suspected by authorities of having links with the Southeast Asian terrorist group called Jeemah Islamiya, led by extremist Indonesian cleric Riduan Isamuddi, alias Alghosi Fais and Hambali.

            Isamuddi’s activities, the alleged ultimate objective of which is to establish an Islamic “superstate” across Asia, are being linked to those of bin Laden’s al-Qaeda global network.