Former congressman Munir Arbison of Sulu vehemently denied any participation in the August 5, 2010 bombing at the Zamboanga International Airport even as he assailed that the charges were anchored on lies, rehashed allegations and trumped up accusations totally designed to incriminate him and utterly destroy his reputation.

This, as he strongly called on the concerned investigating authorities to thoroughly probe and uncover the personalities and motives of the witnesses, whom he said were given money in exchange for making up statements to pin him down.

“We have credible persons who can testify that the witnesses were paid and coaxed into executing confessions implicating me,” Arbison said in his phoned-in reaction during the weekend.

“The charges are all purely figments for deception and packs of fabricated lies devised to include me among the suspected perpetrators of that outrageous airport bombing for personal interest and political gratification,” he added.

“I fervently ask the Fiscal’s office of Zamboanga City to comprehensively look into the charges and scrutinize the statements and dig deep into the questionable characters of the witnesses,” Arbison said.

The former Sulu solon also appealed to Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat and Task Force ZIA head. Chief Supt. Edwin Corvera for an open-minded, honest and fair assessment of facts surrounding the allegations.

“I seek for an in depth investigation of the four still unnamed witnesses in police custody in order to establish their credibility,” he pointed out.

In a press briefing last Friday afternoon. Task Force ZIA named Arbison along with former mayors of two Sulu towns as the alleged masterminds in the blast that killed two persons including the suspected bomb carrier himself and wounded 24 others as well as Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan who came in from a late afternoon flight from Manila. Four other persons were also tagged as accomplices.

Following the incident, Gov. Tan has publicly claimed in media interviews and reports that he believed he was the target of the airport explosion, adding that a similar bomb try against himself was also carried out on May 13, 2009 while he was in a convoy of vehicles near the provincial capitol in Patikul, Sulu.

Reports at that time disclosed that Sr. Supt. Edwin Diocos, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Zamboanga City, has said that charges of frustrated and attempted murder(s) were filed against Arbison, who was included in the charge sheet, along with four other suspects for involvement in the alleged slay attempt.

But Arbison, who was then still incumbent 3rd term congressman, has repeatedly and totally denied participation in that incident. He also denounced the declaration of the two arrested suspects as mere hearsay and implicatory statements not worthy of credibility.

Arbison is now in consultation with his lawyers as to how they will address his implication in the airport blast when formal charges are already filed in court.