DAVAO CITY -- Michael Terence Meiring, 67, checked
in at the Evergreen Hotel on December 14, 2001, carrying two heavy
metal boxes.
According to affidavits of hotel employees, Zander
Bautista, Gerry Kay Magdadaro and Emmanuel Ticson, Meiring would
repeatedly tell them that in cleaning his room, they can touch
anything but the two padlocked metal boxes which allegedly
contained assorted documents.
Magdadaro also recalled that Meiring told him that
in cleaning his room he should use only a “clean rag without any
chemical materials.”
What the metal boxes contained no one knew, until
May 16, 2002, when Meiring nearly lost his life during an
explosion inside his hotel room. In their affidavits, Police
Senior Inspector Sabino Vengco and PO3 German Labandero,
Explosives Ordnance Disposal team leader and post-blast
investigator, respectively, of the Special Anti Terrorist Unit
(SATU), said the explosion originated inside one of the metal
boxes in Meiring’s room.
The investigators also recovered “used improvised
electric blasting cap with burned leg wires, cut-off tiny pieces
of leg wires and bits of pieces of metallic fragments as cap
shell.”
Initial reports said the explosion was caused by
dynamites but on May 23, SPO3 Miguel Vicente, Jr. of the Southern
Mindanao police’s EOD team said the blast was caused by an
improvised explosive device which was described as “powerful” and
“high-tech.”
Vicente was quoted in newspaper reports as saying
the device contained ammonium nitrate, electronic apparatus, and
other explosive materials which can cause heavy explosion and
damage. He theorized that the cover of the other box could have
hit the box that contained the explosive and triggered the
explosion. “Meiring could have put the explosive inside the box to
hurt anyone who was planning to open it,” Vicente said. He added
the bomb could have been used by Meiring in his treasure-hunting
activities.
Charges of illegal possession of ammunition and
reckless imprudence resulting to damage to property were filed
against him on May 22 but Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said Meiring
should be charged for arson, too, for burning a portion of the
hotel.
The other box contained partially burned documents
that would unravel partly the mystery behind the man who called
himself Michael Terence Meiring.
Among the documents found in the box was an
“officer” identification card of the Moro National Liberation
Front’s Bangsamoro Armed Forces, bearing Meiring’s name,
photograph and September 17, 1935 as date of birth.
The Manila Times in a three-part report on May
29-31 last year said Meiring “had close ties to well-placed
government authorities in southern Mindanao, national government
officials and Philippine National Police…. former Moro National
Liberation Front (MNLF) chairman Nur Misuari, Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) chief Hashim Salamat and suspected New
People's Army (NPA) leader Father Navarro. Meiring also has close
ties with `shady people' like MNLF Commander Tony Nasa and others
in Cotabato who acted as `front men' for his dealings with the Abu
Sayyaf.”
Meiring, according to a source who knew him up
close but requested not to be named because “grabe ang connection
nyan” (he is well-connected), had visitors from various sectors,
rich and poor, congressmen, councilors, a governor, military and
once, the source said, Meiring complained he was duped by a police
general.
The source said Meiring’s predictions “always came
true” such as the peso-dollar rate reaching this and that level.
But what the source cannot forget was when Meiring said in January
last year that with the Americans coming for Balikatan, sporadic
bombings were to be expected and there would be a “big one.” When
the source asked Meiring if the General Santos City bombing on
April 21 last year was the ‘big one,” Meiring reportedly said no.
Fifteen persons were killed and 55 others were injured in that
blast.
The Mindanao Times report a day after the blast
quoted Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as saying the police investigated
Meiring the Friday before (May 10), after the intelligence
community found him “highly suspicious” for bringing in boxes in
and out of the hotel.
Meiring was reported to have allowed local
policemen to search his room but refused to let them enter his
bathroom as it was supposedly “out of order.”
When Duterte narrated to the Regional Peace and
Order Council meeting on May 31 last year about how Meiring was
taken out of the hospital by “arrogant” agents of the US Federal
Bureau of Investigation, he said US authorities appeared
interested in pursuing Meiring's case after
Philippine police authorities uncovered several
dubious US Federal bank notes in his possession when they checked
his room and belongings after the blast.
The complaint sheet filed by the chief of the
Investigation Section on May 22 last year, listed seven exhibits
-- record of event, original copy of photos showing the damages in
the room, improvised electric blasting cap with burn (sic) leg
wires, cut-off tiny pieces of leg wires and bits of pieces of
metallic fragments as cap shell, photocopies of three partially
burned documents, photocopy of Meiring’s MNLF identification card
and chemistry report from the PNP Crime Laboratory.
The documents submitted gave credence to Meiring’s
claims as “treasure hunter:” a three-page “International
non-circumvention, nondisclosure confidentiality and working
agreement” on the “sale and investigation of deposits of gold in
bar form, and quantities of nikel (sic) babbit” requiring an
advance of $1.075 million from the buyers’ group, with Meiring
representing the sellers; a February 14, 1998 letter from a Derek
S. Fawell of UK, apparently involved in “underwater survey and
recovery.” Fawell’s letter started with “further to our
discussions relating to the bomb disposal problem, I confirm that
we can supply two experts willing to handle the job” and a
two-page 1999 “Firm offer to sell up to 500 metric tons” starting
with a “trial of 1,240 kilos” of gold bars in a bank in Butuan
City. The offer was from Meiring but the two-page document bore no
addressee.
The Manila Times report last year noted that
“charred US federal bank notes were found in his exploded hotel
room, with a three-week old fax from Derek S. Fawell, of 3
Glenhurst Avenue, Yorkshire, England that read: ‘With regard to
your ordnance disposal problem, I have talked with our experts.
They will be at your location upon the time frame that you
instruct. The device that you have described is highly volatile
and must be dealt with quite delicately.’”
The list of exhibits and the case folder in court
did not include federal notes whether dubious or real and did not
include, too, the supposed three-week old faxed message.
Meiring used in his communications his company
name, Parousia International Trading Co. Inc. using the Evergreen
hotel phone and fax numbers.
A check with the Mindanao Business Council showed
there is no Parousia or Meiring in its directory. The firm,
however, is listed under “metals” in