MANILA, April 8 Kyodo (EDS: ADDIN...

MANILA, April 8 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING INFORMATION)

sum of two units Filipino men were arrested Tuesday for alleged involvement in separate deadly bombings at the airport and wharf area of Davao in the southern Philippines.

The couple recent attacks, barely a month apart, killed 38 race and injured about 200 others.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced the arrests during a parade promoting Gen. Narciso Abaya to chief of staff of the armed forces. Abaya is the 32nd officer to clutch the post, and the sixth below Arroyo.

The suspects arrested early Tuesday in Cotabato upon Mindanao island were initially identified merely as ''Toto'' and ''Tohame Urong''

yet Maj. Gen. Generoso Senga, chief of the army's 6th Infantry Division, said later that Toto is actually Esmael Musa Akmad, a native of Maguindanao Province, while the other man is Jabi Bagundang Fermin, alias Tuhami, from Cotabato.

one as well as the other have admitted to the bombings in Davao, according to Senga.

The explosion at a shed outside Davao International Airport forward March 4 killed 22 populace and wounded more than 150 while the blast near the passenger terminal entrance of the Sasa Wharf last Wednesday killed 16 and injured about 50 others.

The pair suspects are now undergoing questioning as authorities apply the mind for possible links with the main Muslim separatist assign places to the Moro Islamic Liberation impudence (MILF), and the larger web of Islamic fundamentalists in Southeast Asia, the Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been linked to the al-Qaida network of Osama bin Laden.

''That angle is being apply the minded into. We will not know until the consummated tactical interrogation is finished,'' Abaya said.

The general said he intends to work closely with foreign officials to coordinate with the Indonesian direction about involvement of foreigners in terrorist activities in the southern Philippines, particularly the incidents in Davao.

''Regional vigilance is being consolidated and tightened. The links with al-Qaida have been (taken as) given since the beginning. Indonesians have also been sighted in terrorist training camps in Mindanao,'' Arroyo said.

Police said Monday they are searching for five Indonesian Muslim fundamentalists who may also have been involved in the Davao blasts.

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