Destroy Davao, Destroy Duterte? TASK FORCE DAVAO FOILS GOOD FRIDAY BOMB PLOT

By Manny Piñol

The scenario is now well defined and the picture is getting clearer.

Davao City, the world’s largest city in land area and widely considered as one of the safest cities in the world, is under siege.

Early Friday evening, as I was driving alone to Davao City from North Cotabato, the Task Force Davao choke point in Toril District suddenly stopped the flow of vehicles entering the city stranding hundreds of travellers including myself.

“They recovered a bag with a bomb,” one of the drivers told me.

That explained why the passengers of the vehicles stopped at the check point scrambled out of their cars and ran to safety.

I immediately sent a text message to Christopher Bong Go, presidential frontrunner Rody Duterte’s right hand man, who a few minutes later confirmed that a man was arrested after a backpack containing Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) was seized from him.

Early this morning, davaobreakingnews.com, an online news site, published a photo of the man with the IEDs and this accompanying story:

“A man with two improvised explosive devices was arrested by the authorities while passing thru a checkpoint in Toril, Davao City Friday, March 25.

“Arrested was Roy Bulat-ag Moreno, 22 years old and a native of Sinsuat Street, Kidapawan City. The suspect was inside a passenger van from Kidapawan when it passed through the checkpoint of Task Force Davao in Sirawan, Toril Friday evening.

“Recovered from Bulat-ag’s possession were two IEDs and other bomb paraphernalia, and a hand grenade.

“Authorities are still determining the background of the suspect whether he has affiliation with any terrorist or lawless groups. As of this posting, Bulat-ag is still undergoing investigation.”

Today, I will validate the report saying that the man is from Kidapawan City.

That would be very easy to do since the capital city of North Cotabato is a small community where almost everybody knows each other.

What is very difficult to understand, however, is why would there be a bombing attempt in Davao City?

I believe I know why.

Duterte, who is now the frontrunner in the Presidential race because of his clear advocacy against drugs, criminality and corruption, has always pointed to Davao City as his Exhibit A.

The message is getting across people in the entire country very clearly and they would like to have a community and a country, for that matter, that is as safe as Davao.

So, how do you expect his political opponents would counter that?

The formula is simple: Attack Exhibit A. Prove that Davao is not a safe city, after all.

This is the line that administration candidate Manuel Roxas III has been repeating time and again – Davao City has the highest crime rate in the country.

Roxas has conveniently forgotten that the crime statistics of Davao City include the violation of local ordinances like Anti-Smoking, the use of noisy motorcycle exhaust pipes, the 1 a.m. Liquor Ban, the 10 p.m. curfew for minors, the Anti-Firecracker Ban and other special laws.

He conveniently omitted the fact that Davao City’s Crime Solution Efficiency Rating of 76% is a lot higher than the national average.

Last year, an informant based in Camp Crame told me of a plot to stage a “Great Drug Raid” in Davao City with the very obvious purpose – discredit Duterte’s reputation as the main man in the campaign against drugs in this country.

This was followed by Roxas’ claim that he could point out the places in Davao City, also Makati, where you could buy drugs.

So what is it which makes this latest bombing try in Davao City unusual?

The last bombing in Davao City was in 2003 at the Sasa Wharf where 16 people died. This was believed to have been perpetrated by secessionist groups.

Duterte has very good relationships with the leaders of both the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). He has open communication lines with the communist New People’s Army (NPA).

Who would gain most from the “Great Drug Raid” or a Good Friday bombing in Davao City?

As the cliche goes “One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to be able to understand the puzzle.”

Destroy Davao City, Destroy Exhibit A, Destroy Duterte.

For some groups, the ultimate objective now is to derail Duterte’s presidential bid since he is leading with a little over a month to go before the elections.

This is how vile and dirty politics is played by people who crave for power and the money that comes along with it.

Lie, cheat, bomb, kill. For them, all is fair in politics.

These are the very same people who call Duterte “evil” for publicly declaring that he would eliminate drug dealers and criminals to make the country safe.

The threat against Davao City is not over yet. People of the city could expect more in the weeks to come before the elections.

(Photo of suspect and IEDs downloaded from davaobreakingnews.com courtesy of Jeshleo Carungay.)