Authorities said Sunday they apparently foiled possible terrorist bomb attacks in southern Philippines with the seizure last Friday of a large cache of explosives possibly intended for Abu Sayyaf militants in Sulu province. Police and Marines earlier raided a house on Jolo island and found 14 sacks of ammonium nitrate, a bag of potassium chlorate, more than 3,500 blasting caps, one caliber .40 handgun, two magazines with 10 rounds of ammunition and P80,000 in cash from a house in Jolo town past noon Friday. Experts said ammonium nitrate is a fertilizer that can be turned into bombs while potassium chlorate is a chemical compound used in making explosives and firecrackers. Earlier on Thursday, police seized a huge volume of blasting caps capable of destroying a mall in Zamboanga City and arrested the shipment's alleged owner, the police said. The explosives were taken from a private wharf by the police following a tip provided by an informant about the arrival of the shipment, said Chief Superintendent Felizardo Serapio Jr., head of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations for Western Mindanao. Serapio said the explosives consisted of 200,000 blasting caps in 4,000 bundles with each bundle containing 50 blasting caps. He added that the cargo came from nearby Sulu province. “This huge shipment of blasting caps when detonated could tear down the biggest mall in Zamboanga City,” Serapio said. Police investigators said the explosives could be intended to launch a series of terrorist bomb attacks in Zamboanga and Sulu provinces as a diversionary tactic of the Abu Sayyaf militants to ease military pressure for them to release two European workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Swiss Andreas Notter and Italian Eugenio Vagni remain in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf after they were kidnapped ast Jan. 15 in Jolo. The bandits were demanding $5 million dollars in exchange for the release of Notter and Vagni, a police report said. Last week, the Abu Sayyaf freed Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba without ransom. Senior Superintendent Julasirim Kasim, Sulu police chief, said they believed the seized explosives were not merely for dynamite fishing but for the manufacture of improvised explosive devices. He said Friday's raid was part of a campaign to eliminate sources of weapons for the Abu Sayyaf. Navy spokesman Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo said Nahrin Akmad, who owns the house where the explosives were found, is a suspected weapons supplier to the Abu Sayyaf. Akmad is being huntd by the police, Kasim said.
