Police have arrested a dismissed cop who was positively identified as being behind the series of explosions in the vicinity of banks in the cities of Caloocan and Valenzuela two weeks ago.

But Metro Manila policemen admitted that they are yet to determine the motive behind the explosions near the vicinity of the Allied Bank in Caloocan City and Union Bank in Valenzuela City on July 11 and in front of the ATM booth of the Union Bank in Valenzuela City on July 13.

The suspect, ex-police Officer 3 Leandro Songcuan, has refused to talk, said police.

Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales, director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), said a background check revealed that Songcuan is foreign-trained bomb expert and technician and a former member of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) before his dismissal in 2004.

“He was dismissed from the police service for his involvement in a string of robberies and holdup in CAMANAVA (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela) and other parts of Metro Manila,” said Rosales in a press briefing in Camp Crame Friday afternoon.

Rosales added that Songcuan is the subject of two arrest warrants, one for robbery with homicide. Songcuan was collared in a raid at his house at 164 Vista Verde North Avenue, Vista Verde, Barangay Kaybiga in Caloocan City on July 22 after a witness provided the cops with a cartographic sketch of a man who hurled an explosive device in front of the ATM booth of Union Bank in Valenzuela City.

“During the police line up, two other witnesses positively identified Songcuan as the same person who hurled an explosive in Allied Bank in Caloocan City,” said Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao, director of the Northern Police District.

Pagdilao said a follow-up search of Songcuan’s house yielded explosive device tools, electrical wires, dismantled cellular phones and cellular phone charges.

But both Rosales and Pagdilao stressed that they have not yet establish the link so far between the explosions in CAMANAVA area and the Improvised Explosive Device that exploded at the vicinity of the Office of the Ombudsman and the discovery of bombs at the vicinity of Department of Agriculture and at the Burgundy Plaza all in Quezon City last month.

They said there is no proof that the group of Songcuan was also responsible for the improvised explosive device discovered near a bank in Parañaque City recently.

Asked of the possibility that Songcuan was tapped as part of the destabilization plot, Rosales said: “We are not discounting that possibility, that’s why we are trying our best for him (Songcuan) to cooperate.

Once he cooperates with us, we’ll be able to dismiss the reports on the alleged rumblings in the AFP and the PNP.”