Philippines Interrogates Arrested Terror Leader

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 31, 2008) – Philippine authorities were interrogating a suspected terror leader blamed for the deadly attack on a ferry off Manila Bay that killed over 100 people in 2004.

Authorities are holding Ruben Lavilla Jr., after he was arrested and deported back home on Saturday from Bahrain, where he applied for a job at the Philippine Embassy.

Lavilla is said to be the leader of the Rajah Solaiman Movement, whose other members had been arrested in Zamboanga City in the past, among them Ahmed Santos, another leader of the local terror group allied with the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiya.

Lavilla escaped from the Philippines after the February 27, 2004 ferry bombing, but he was arrested in Bahrain after a security check on his background by the embassy.

Manila blamed the three groups for the spate of bombings in Manila and in Mindanao in southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner)

Jemaah-Sayyaf Ally Owns Up Deadly Philippine Bombing

MAKATI CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 20, 2007) – a Filipino militant group allied with the Indonesian terrorist Jemaah Islamiya and the Abu Sayyaf has claimed responsibility Saturday for the deadly bombing of a shopping center in the Philippine financial district of Makati City.

Police and the Red Cross said at least 9 people were killed and 129 others wounded in the blast at the Glorieta Mall on Friday.

A man, Sheik Omar, who claimed to be a spokesman for the Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM) contacted the television network ABS-CBN to say that his group was behind the attack.

In a cell phone text message to ABS-CBN, the man also relayed their demand for the release of their leader Hilario del Rosario III, also known as Ahmed Islam Santos.

Del Rosario, captured in October 2006 at a hideout in Zamboanga city in southern Philippines, was the head of the RSM, a group of Christians who converted to Islam and with suspected links to the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya.

Police said it is investigating whether the RSM was behind the blast. “We are still investigating this claim, but the RSM has no more capability to carry such attack,” said Geary Barias, the chief of the metropolitan police force.

Del Rosario was also implicated in the February 2004 bombing of a Super Ferry ship that killed 116 people. It was the second worst terrorist attack in Asia. The group was also implicated in plots to attack the US embassy and American nationals. (Mindanao Examiner)

Leader Of Radical Rajah Solaiman Group Captured In Basilan Island

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 02 Dec) - Government soldiers captured an alleged leader of the radical Rajah Solaiman Movement linked to the terrorist groups Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya in the southern Philippine island of Basilan, a marine spokesman said.

Lt. Col. Ariel Caculitan said there is an ongoing operation to track down other members of the radical group, blamed for the spate of bombings in the Philippines, after troops captured Feliciano delos Reyes in Lamitan town late Thursday.

"Delos Reyes was seized by soldiers and he is being interrogated in Zamboanga City," Caculitan told the Mindanao Examiner by phone in Zamboanga City.

He said Delos Reyes was wanted by authorities after jumping bail from charges of illegal possession of explosives in Pangasinan province, north of Manila, in 2002. Authorities in Zamboanga City had arrested last year the alleged chieftain of the Rajah Solaiman, Ahmed Santos, and several of his followers.

Caculitan did not give details of the arrest. It was unknown if the Rajah Solaiman Movement was planning an attack, but the group was said to have targeted in the past areas frequented by Western tourists, including the red light district of Malate in the Philippine capital.

He said Delos Reyes, also known as Ustadz Abubakar, would be flown to Manila for further investigation. Delos Reyes' arrest came ahead of the visit next week of top U.S. military officials in Jolo island, where American forces are helping Filipino troops capture leaders of the Abu Sayyaf and two Jemaah Islamiya bombers, Dulmatin and Umar Patek, both wanted by Jakarta for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 200 mostly Western tourists.

Local military officials did not give any statement about the arrest.

According to a report last year by the International Crisis Group, The Rajah Solaiman is the radical fringe of the Balik-Islam movement, literally "return to Islam."

Members of the Rajah Solaiman Movement call themselves "reverts," not converts mainly for two reasons. First, they maintain that all humans are born free of sin into Islam, but, misled by parents or guardians, maybe brought up in other traditions. Secondly, they argue that Islam was the country's original religion, whose spread was forcibly reversed by Spanish colonial intervention.

The arrested ringleader of the group, Santos, converted to Islam in 1993 and married into the top ranks of the of the Abu Sayyaf group before the Rajah Solaiman was formally established in 2002.

The Philippine military said some commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front sheltered the Rajah Solaiman militants in Mindanao, but this was denied by the rebel group, which is currently negotiating peace with Manila.

The Rajah Solaiman was also blamed for the car bombing of the airport in Awang town in Maguindanao province in 2003, that left one person dead. (Mindanao Examiner)