Soldiers Recover More Chemical Used In Manufacturing Bombs In Zamboanga

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 07 Nov) - Government soldiers on Tuesday recovered more banned chemicals used widely by rebels in the manufacture of explosives in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Officials said soldiers recovered a total of 375 kilos of ammonium nitrate from a truck they intercepted at an army checkpoint in the coastal village of Rio Hondo.

Troops also seized an unlicensed .45-caliber pistol from a man, Hasimin Sahid, believed to be the owner of the illegal cargo, said Major Eugene Batara, a regional army spokesman.

Batara said the soldiers earlier seized 125 kilos of ammonium nitrate from the truck, but they found 250 kilos more chemical hidden in 10 bags inside sacks of charcoal. "The arrested man is a native of Mapun island off Tawi-Tawi province. He is under investigation," he told the Mindanao Examiner.

The village is a notorious hideout of criminal gangs and terrorists and had been used in the past by the Abu Sayyaf as springboard for attacks against civilian targets.

Last month, authorities detained three men linked to the smuggling of 200 kilos of high-grade French-made ammonium nitrate in the port of Zamboanga.

Policemen, backed by soldiers, intercepted the shipment from a Filipino ferry, MV Nickel Princely, that came from the restive island of Jolo where the Abu Sayyaf detonated a homemade bomb and wounded 3 people inside a police headquarters.

The group was also implicated in the bombing in March of a Church-run cooperative store that left nine people dead and 20 injured in downtown Jolo. In September, Zamboanga port authorities also intercepted a ferry loaded with a ton of ammonium nitrate, allegedly owned by the Abu Sayyaf.

The boat was held just minutes after it arrived from Jolo island and a ferry cargo inspector and four police escorts from Jolo were held for questioning in connection with the illegal cargo. Three more Abu Sayyaf bombings rocked the southern Philippines last month, killing at least 14 people. (Mindanao Examiner)