8 charged in Christmas Day bombing of Jolo chapel

JOLO, Sulu, Philippines (Inquirer.net)—Police authorities have filed charges against eight alleged members of the Abu Sayyaf for the December 25 blast at a chapel inside the police headquarters here in which 11 persons were wounded.

Philippine National Police Director General Raul Bacalzo said of the eight men charged in connection with the bombing of the Sacred Heart chapel on Asturias St., two remained unidentified.

Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, police director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, identified six of the eight suspects as Alhabsi Misaya, Sali Saed, Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, Jul Attip Jalmaan, a certain Bong and a certain Gafur.

Bacalzo said all suspects remained at large.

“We are now waiting for the issuance of the warrants of arrest against these suspects,” he said.

Latag said the police managed to establish the identities of the six suspects based on testimonies of witnesses.

“They are all members of the Abu Sayyaf,” he said.

Bacalzo, meanwhile, said the police were still in the process of conducting their security inspection and audit.

“We want to determine where the lapse occurred,” he said.

Bacalzo said administrative sanctions would be imposed on police officials who failed or had been remiss in their duties.

Latag admitted that the police headquarters was supposed to be tightly guarded.

“It’s a well-guarded compound. It’s manned and secured by regular police forces, by the Special Action Force and a nearby detachment of the Philippine Marines, that's why I can't understand how the bombing became possible,” Latag said earlier.

It was the second bombing inside the police headquarters in recent years.

On October 15, 2006, three persons were also wounded when suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf set off a bomb in an alley between the camp's hospital and the Peacekeepers' Inn.

On December 29, four days after the chapel bombing, a guard foiled an attempt to bomb Patikul town.

A month earlier, police authorities in Cotabato City arrested a suspected Abu Sayyaf member who was transporting three kilos of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can also be used in bomb-making. (report from Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao)