FROM RESCUE TO BOMBING PLOTS

A joint AFP-PNP raid in an apartment on Paglao Island, Bohol rented by Supt. Maria Cristina Nobleza and bomb expert Renierlo Dongon yields components for making explosives. (CDN PHOTO/Leo Udtohan)

ABU SAYYAF IN BOHOL

Supt. Maria Cristina Nobleza and Renierlo Dongon did not just intend to rescue the remaining Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) members trapped in Clarin town. They also might have planned to do bombing activities in Bohol.

Authorities raised this suspicion after they found that Nobleza and Dongon, a bomb expert, have rented an apartment in Barangay Looc of Panglao Island on April 17, just two days before the now concluded Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) pre-summit meeting was held in the area.

Inside the luggage left behind in the Panglao apartment, police discovered components of an improvised explosive device: a C-4 plastic explosive, a detonating cord, a blasting cap, and a blasting cap kit.

A separate raid on the house of Nobleza in Malaybalay City in Bukidnon on Monday night also yielded several bomb materials and the arrest of three persons.

Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), said investigation was still being conducted to determine why Nobleza and Dongon had explosive devices in the Panglao apartment.

“Part of our investigation is intended to establish what was their purpose in possessing components of an explosive device, why do they have those kind of stuffs,” he said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

Nobleza, deputy chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Davao region Crime Laboratory, was arrested in Bohol on Saturday with Dongon, also a member of a shadowy Khilifa Islamiyah Movement.

Dongon’s picture was in the PNP wanted list of known terrorist bombers, which enabled the police in Bohol to identify him, revealed PNP Northern Mindanao spokesperson Supt. Lemuel Gonda.

Dongon is facing double murder cases and frustrated murder cases for the October 2012 bombing at the Maxandrea Hotel in Cagayan de Oro that left two dead, including a policeman, and injured two people.

He also faces another set of murder and frustrated murder charges for the July 26, 2013 bombing at Limketkai row of restaurants that left ten persons dead and 46 others injured.

The tipster

Taliño said it was the owner of the Panglao apartment who tipped the police that Nobleza and Dongon rented his unit and had left behind some belongings.

The apartment owner turned over two luggage owned by the couple to the Bohol Provincial Police Office’s (BPPO) Intelligence Branch (PIB), led by Senior Insp. Jojit Mananquil, and to Insp. Joemar Pomarejos, Panglao Police chief.

On Monday night, the luggage were opened in the presence of the owner of the apartment, Looc Barangay Captain Ester Bongcaron and village councilors Nestor Guioguio and Rolando Clenista.

Initial investigation showed that Nobleza, Dongon and two others arrived in Panglao last April 17, two days before the Asean trade ministers meetings on the resort island, and barely a week after the gun battle between government troops and ASG members in Inabanga, Bohol.

Nobleza, together with an elderly woman named Judith and a 13-year-old boy, was on board a black Nissan Navara pickup driven by Dongon when they were taken into police custody after Dongon tried to speed through a checkpoint in Clarin town in Bohol on Saturday evening.

Found inside the vehicle were Nobleza’s police-issued firearm, bottles of energy drink, canned goods, diving gear, goggles, biscuits, boxes of chocolates, male underwear, T-shirts, shorts for men and medical kits.

Sent to Crame

Nobleza and Dongon were transferred from Tagbilaran City to Manila in an early morning flight on Tuesday.

Taliño escorted the two on board a Cebu Pacific flight, which left the Tagbilaran City Airport at 7:50 a.m.

On the orders of PNP chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the two will now be detained in Camp Crame, while the Criminal Intelligence and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG-7) headed by Supt. Royina Garma will investigate Nobleza’s alleged links to ASG.

“They are considered high-risk inmates,” Taliño told CDN by phone last night.

The elderly woman remains at the custody of the BPPO while the minor was turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Taliño said Nobleza was charged with illegal possession of firearms, resistance and disobedience to agent of person in authority, and harboring of a criminal.

Dongon and Judith, on their part, were charged with resistance and disobedience to agent of person in authority.

Brig. Gen. Ricardo Visaya, then commander of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, was quoted in a 2013 report that Dongon served as leader of Khilafah Islamiya and was arrested along with an associate by police intelligence operatives in Marawi City on May 11, 2013.

The operation led to the seizure of 29 pieces of blasting caps and other materials in manufacturing bombs. Dongon, however, was subsequently released because the name on the search warrant was that of his younger brother.

Malaybalay raid

Gonda, on the other hand, said that police and army operatives raided the house of Nobleza at Pine Hills Executive Homes in Purok 5, Barangay Casisang, Malaybalay City Monday night after they obtained a search warrant from a local court.

Gonda said the raiding team found from the house 66 non-electric blasting caps, a timer for explosive device, and several bomb-making components.

He said the raiders also seized an M16 and a caliber 45 pistol; and ammunition from Nobleza’s house.

Gonda said one person and two minors including the younger brother of Dongon were arrested.

The arrested adult was identified as Al Moammar Bayani, 22, of Barangay San Juan, Baroy, Lanao del Norte.

He said the police got a warrant to search the house of Nobleza after receiving an order from top PNP officials.

“It was a matter of searching the official records of Nobleza because she was an active police officer. That is how we know of her residence,” Gonda said.