Mindanao Peace Group Asks Senate Probe on Commander Robot and Davao Bombings

A peace group is asking the Senate to investigate captured Abu Sayyaf leader, “Commander Robot,” in order to shed light on recent bombings in Mindanao. With the bandits admitting their participation in the explosions and given reports of complicity between the military and the bandit group, it is possible that the atrocities were “state-sponsored,” said the group.

BY BULATLAT.COM

DAVAO CITY – Abu Sayyaf leader Galib Andang also known as (aka) Commander Robot should be investigated publicly through a Senate investigation, a peace group in Mindanao demanded last week. Such a probe, it said, could help shed light on the alleged connivance between the bandits and the military.

Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao (or Inpeace), a multisectoral group working for a platform of “peace with justice” in Mindanao, expressed concern and suspicion over the government’s silence on the prosecution of Andang as well as the possibility floated earlier that Germany, some of whose citizens were the victims of the Abu Sayyaf, wanted him tried in that country.

Dr. Robinson Montalba, Inpeace’s convenor, said they are afraid that the electoral fever for the May 10 elections “may force the issue to be swept under the rug.”

A Senate investigation, Montalba said, should also produce more information about the Abu Sayyaf’s alleged role in the March 4 bombing of the Davao International Airport. Andang, who led the Abu Sayyaf’s faction in Sulu, was arrested by the military last December.

“The allegations that the Abu Sayyaf is operating under the tutelage of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and that the ousted Estrada government actually benefited from its kidnap-for-ransom activities are indications that the group's criminal activities could be state-sponsored terrorism," Montalba said last week.

Montalba, who is also presiding chairman of the Mindanao Truth Commission, a citizen-led body currently conducting a fact finding mission on the Davao bombings, also said the Abu Sayyaf’s “own admission of responsibility for the Davao bombings will never be pursued because of government's lack of interest, if not outright refusal, to prosecute them for this publicly-admitted guilt."

It can be recalled that the Abu Sayyaf admitted to the media shortly after the airport attack that it was behind the bombing. The government and the military insist that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was behind the bombing. Montalba said the government never took the Abu Sayyaf’s admission seriously.

"It is suspicious why the Arroyo government did not pursue this angle when the Abu Sayyaf was the first and only one to claim direct responsibility for the Davao airport bombing. It seems intentional on the part of the government to ignore this admission.  The question is, why?" Montalba said.

Montalba added that the Abu Sayyaf’s alleged connivance with government should become an election issue. "Both the Estrada and Arroyo camps have their hands stained by questionable association with the Abu Sayyaf," he said. Bulatlat.com

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