Perpetrators
Initially, various Islamic groups were implicated in the bombings, including the Jemaah Islamiyah, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and the Moro National Liberation Front.
In September 2003, almost three years after the incident, the case remained unsolved as the authorities responsible were berated by then-senate president Franklin Drilon.
In May 2003, Saifullah Yunos (aka Mukhlis Yunos), a suspect in the bombings, was arrested in the southern city of Cagayan de Oro as he was about to board a plane to Manila. Police were alerted to the suspect when he failed to explain numerous bandages on his face and arms. A month later, he confessed to a level of involvement in the bombings. A member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's special operations group, he was charged with multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder for his role in the bombings.
In the following years, several members of the Jemaah Islamiyah were arrested for their suspected involvement in the bombings. In 2004, two Muslim men, Mamasao Naga (aka Zainal Paks) and Abdul Pata (aka Mohamad Amir) were arrested by Philippine armed forces in Marawi City. They were supposedly identified by Fathur Rahman Al-Ghozi, a known member of the Jemaah Islamiyah, as the ones responsible for the LRT train cab bombing.
The MILF and the MNLF were later cleared by the Philippine National Police of any involvement in the attacks.
Fathur Rahman Al-Ghozi, an Indonesian national and member of the known terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, was convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison for illegal possession of explosives in relation to the Rizal Day bombing incidents. In July 2003, Al-Ghozi, along with several other accomplices, escaped from their holding cell at Camp Crame. Al-Ghozi was later killed in a firefight with Philippine authorities on October 13, 2003.
On January 23, 2009, the three Rizal Day bombers, Mukhlis Hadji Yunos, Abdul Fatak Paute, and Mamasao Naga were sentenced by the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 29, under Judge Cielito Mendaro-Grulla, of up to twenty years in imprisonment for multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder.
Read more about this topic: Rizal Day Bombings