MANILA, Philippines, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- The Philippine military has lost track of a suspected Islamic extremist.
The suspect, Tyrone Dawud Santos, was arrested in Cubao, Quezon City, in March on a charge of gun possession and was implicated in a plot to bomb a club in Malate, Manila, during Holy Week. He was freed on bail a month later, the Manila Times reported Tuesday.
A military intelligence officer said the Philippine Armed Forces (AFP) had been keeping Santos under constant surveillance since his release but "that he dropped from the screen" sometime last week. That was about the time when Santos's older brother, Hilarion del Rosario, alias Ahmad Santos, the leader of the radical Rajah Solaiman Movement, was arrested in Zamboanga City.
"Right now we do not know where he [Dawud Santos] is. He's nowhere to be seen," said Rear Adm. Tirso Danga, Philippine Armed Forces deputy chief of staff for Intelligence (J-2).
A day after Santos's arrest, military and police agents recovered 1,320 pounds of ammonium nitrate, an ingredient in making explosives, in another Rajah Solaiman safe house in Fairview, also in Quezon City.
Intelligence sources pointed to Dawud Santos as the designated mastermind of the plan to bomb the Malate club, which is reportedly frequented by foreigners, the Manila Times said.
