Police arrested one of the alleged masterminds of a ferry bombing that killed 116 people four years ago, a Philippine anti-terrorism official said yesterday.
Ruben Pestano Lavilla was deported to Manila yesterday after being arrested last month in Bahrain, said Anti-Terrorism Council Chairman Eduardo Ermita, who is also the most senior member of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Cabinet.
Lavilla was arrested after he applied for a job at the Philippine embassy in Bahrain, Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor said.
Blancaflor said Lavilla is “the brains” of the Rajah Solaiman Movement, a group of Islamic converts that is allied with two al-Qaeda-linked groups — the regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group based in the southern Philippines.
Bahraini authorities arrested Lavilla on July 24 after a Philippine embassy security check on job applicants found he had outstanding warrants for murder and rebellion in the Philippines, Blancaflor said.
It took a month for the deportation process to be completed, including a confirmation by the Bahraini government of the existence of the Philippine arrest warrants, the creation of a team to bring Lavilla back to Manila and other preparations that “conform with the international law on human rights,” Blancaflor said.
“If you are a terrorist, wherever you are, wherever you hide, the law will catch up with you — that’s the most important thing here,” he said.
He said Lavilla fled the country about a month after the Feb. 27, 2004, bombing of the Superferry 14.
The blast ignited a fire that swept through the ferry as it was sailing in Manila Bay.
It was the second-worst terrorist attack in Southeast Asia after 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, that killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.
The Rajah Solaiman Movement and its Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah allies have also been blamed for a series of bombings on Feb. 14, 2005, in Manila and two southern cities that killed eight people and wounded 150 others.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS