Islamist militant held in the Philippines

By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Published: August 31, 2008

MANILA: The authorities have taken into custody a man they contend is one of the founders of an Islamic extremist group who masterminded the bombing of a passenger ship here in 2004 that killed 116 people. It was the worst terrorist attack in Southeast Asia since the Bali bombings in 2002.

Ruben Omar Pestano Lavilla Jr., who the police assert helped form the Rajah Solaiman Movement, was deported Saturday from Bahrain, where he had been detained after his arrest in July.

Officials in the Philippines said Lavilla’s arrest was a major breakthrough in the U.S.-supported war on terrorism here.

Aside from the bombing of the ship Superferry 14 in February 2004, Lavilla is also under investigation for his role in a series of attacks in Makati City, the financial center of the Philippines, and two other cities in the south on Feb. 14, 2005.

Eight people were killed and more than 150 were wounded in those attacks.

The Rajah Solaiman Movement, which seeks a separate Islamic state for Filipino Muslims, is composed of Christians who have converted to Islam.

It is on the terrorist list of both the U.S. government and the United Nations.

In June, the U.S. Treasury Department sought to tighten the financial screws on the Rajah Solaiman Movement by designating the group and its members as “global terrorists.”

It said the movement had received financial support from people in Saudi Arabia and from at least one Filipino financier there who channeled funds through Muslim charities in the Philippines.

Filipino and Western anti-terrorism officials have linked the movement to the Abu Sayyaf group and Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian terror network that Western and Asian intelligence agencies have tied to Al Qaeda.

Ricardo Blancaflor, spokesman for the Philippine Anti-Terrorism Council, announced Lavilla’s arrest and deportation and described the arrest as a “big boost” in Manilla’s fight against terrorism.

It was not clear how Lavilla managed to leave the country in the first place, though officials said there had obviously been “intelligence lapses” that might have allowed him to slip away.

The Treasury Department said Lavilla “is believed to have taken over as RSM’s political, religious and strategic leader” after the arrest in 2005 of the group’s leader, Ahmed Santos.

Officials also said Saturday that four members of the Philippine Marines had been killed and 10 had been wounded in an ambush, apparently by Abu Sayyaf militants in Sulu Province, in the southern Philippines.

In addition, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the main Islamic separatist group in the southern Philippines, said Sunday that it might abandon the peace process because of the government’s decision not to sign a peace agreement that had been initialed by both sides.

Mohagher Iqbal, the front’s chief negotiator, said in an interview with Reuters that his group would negotiate further only if the government signed the agreement, which would have given Muslims a sizable territory.

“We’re not only disappointed and frustrated over the government’s decision to turn its back on the ancestral domain deal, we’ve completely lost trust and confidence in them,” Iqbal said Sunday. “The fate of the peace negotiation rests solely in the hands of the government.”

Violence has resumed on the southern island of Mindanao because of the failure by both sides to sign the agreement.

More than 300,000 people have been forced from their homes, officials said, and more than 150 rebels, soldiers and civilians have been killed.