MILITARY intelligence agents foiled a plan to bomb a busy public transport terminal in Mindanao reportedly by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) following the arrest of one of its members, who is a bomb expert.

Maj. Armand Rico, spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command, said members of the Intelligence Service, Armed Forces (Isafp) aborted the plan of the MILF to bomb the van terminal in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat, with the arrest of Arman Mano on Sunday.

Mano, who admitted of being a member of the MILF explosives squad, according to Rico, was arrested by military agents in Talayan, Maguindanao. The agents also recovered a homemade bomb fashioned out of an 81mm mortar shell with a cellular phone as its triggering device that has been assembled by the Moro rebel.

He said the homemade bomb was supposed to be exploded on Monday.

“Said bomb was assembled by Arman Mano and intended to be detonated at the van terminal of Isulan, Sultan Kudarat, anytime today [Monday], if not intercepted,” Rico told defense reporters.

He said Mano, who is being interrogated by policemen and soldiers at the headquarters of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in Maguindanao, admitted he was a member of the rebel group’s explosives squad.

Rico said the MILF leadership is expected to deny Mano’s membership with the separatist group as it usually does in the past every time any of its members gets arrested.

The military is still looking into the motive of the planned bombing but Rico said this may have to do with the stalled peace talks.

“One of the angles that we are looking into and based on our assessment is that this is one way of airing their [MILF] grievances about the delayed peace talks,” he said.

Rico said the military is still conducting follow-up operations.

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