|
By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: At least five
people were killed and about three dozens wounded in a bomb attack
Sunday near a Catholic church in Cotabato City in the southern
Philippines.
The Catholic Notre Dame
Broadcasting Corp. said the bomb exploded at around 8:20 a.m. near
restaurants and stalls selling roasted pigs outside the church in
downtown Cotabato, also home to minority Muslims.
A lone suspect left a homemade
device outside the Immaculate Conception cathedral in Cotabato City,
officials said.
Initial investigation revealed
that the improvised explosive was made from either 60mm or 81mm
mortar ammunition and was detonated using a cellular phone.
The city police chief, Supt.
Willie Dangane, said no one had claimed responsibility for the
attack but confirmed that the suspected bomber was arrested as he
tried to bring another device into the church.
The suspect, whose identity was
withheld pending investigation, was placed under the custody of the
Cotabato City police.
Archbishop Orlando Quevedo of the
Archdiocese of Cotabato condemned the attack and called it a
“sacrilege.”
“The church they attacked is a
place of refuge, even for criminals. People were worshipping
when the bomb went off. This is not just a crime, this is a
sacrilege,” added Quevedo, who was saying Mass when the powerful
blast happened.
He was concluding his homily when
the bomb went off, he said in an interview with a Catholic-run dxMS
AM radio station here in this city.
“When I heard the blast and saw
smoke, I told my parishioners to stay calm and not [to] panic. But
I can’t control the crowd,” he added.
Separatists blamed
Despite the pending
investigation, the military was quick to blame the explosion on
rebels.
“The Moro Islamic Liberation
Front’s [MILF] special operations group is behind this attack and
this is terrorism,” Col. Jonathan Ponce, a spokesman for the
Army’s Sixth Infantry Division, told The Manila Times.
Ponce added that the casualties
in the bombing were civilians. “The bomb was detonated just as the
people are coming out of the church.”
Police said two soldiers were
killed at the scene, while another died of his injuries in hospital.
Ponce said those killed included
Ruby Ramirez, the 43-year-old resident of Sultan Kudarat,
Maguindanao, and owner of the lechon house where the bomb was
planted; Prince Salem Cang Diaz, grandson of Patricio Diaz, former
editor in chief of Cotabato newspaper The Mindanao Cross; a certain
Paulo Kahar; and an unidentified male believed to be mentally ill.
Reports did not identify the fifth casualty.
Many of the wounded were women
and children, according to Froi Cordero, a priest who helped bring
the casualties to hospital.
The church was not heavily
damaged as a restaurant across the street appeared to have absorbed
much of the impact, witnesses said. Ordnance experts searched for
clues among blood-spattered debris on the road outside the church.
Ponce said the MILF was also
behind a roadside bombing late Saturday in Maguindanao’s Datu
Piang town that wounded three people.
“They are getting desperate
because of the military operations,” he added, stressing that the
attacks were apparently meant to divert military attention.
The military said it had received
intelligence reports earlier indicating that the MILF was to carry
out bomb attacks in major cities in Mindanao, the main southern
island where they have been fighting for an independent Islamic
state over the past three decades.
Rebels deny attack
The MILF has denied it was behind
the latest blast and condemned the attack, saying, it was against
Islamic principle.
“We condemned this attack
against innocent civilians, against the Church. This is against
Islamic principle and against humanity,” said Eid Kabalu, a senior
MILF leader.
Kabalu also assailed the Sixth
Infantry Division for quickly linking the MILF to the attack.
“This [accusation] is clearly
aimed at maligning the MILF, and portraying the MILF as a terrorist
organization. The Army has already blamed the MILF even if the
police is yet to investigate the bombing. This could also be the
handiwork of the military to create fear and chaos in Mindanao,”
he said in a separate interview.
The MILF is the country’s
largest Muslim rebel group fighting the past three decades for
self-determination.
The blast occurred after the MILF
ordered its forces to further improve combat skills as fighting
continues in the troubled region.
The secluded Murad Ebrahim,
chieftain of the 12,000-strong MILF rebels, gave the order during a
meeting with his commanders on a mountain hideout in central
Mindanao, where fighting since last year had forced tens of
thousands of Muslims to flee their homes.
”It is only by sincere
evaluation of these encounters that the MILF would be able to
improve its fighting skills and capabilities and hope to lick the
enemy in the next confrontation,” Murad said.
The MILF peace talks with Manila
collapsed last year after rebels accused President Gloria Arroyo of
reneging on a homeland deal that would have granted territories to
about four million Muslims across 700 villages in Mindanao.
Peace preferred
Murad said he has always
preferred peace negotiation over war in the resolution of the
conflict in Mindanao, but continued government offensive forced the
rebels to defend themselves. He called on rebel commanders to be
steadfast and patient in the face of the “brutalities” of the
military.
Murad also accused government
troops of burning some 3,000 houses owned by Muslims and
indiscriminate bombing, shelling, and arrests of civilians.
He said the military also imposed
a food blockade from reaching tens of thousands of hungry refugees
and prevented humanitarian groups and journalists from inspecting
refugee shelters in Maguindanao.
Murad assailed the military for
saying that the MILF infiltrated refugee shelters, and that rebels
were using evacuation centers as base for reserved forces.
“The prevention of media to
visit the war-torn areas by the AFP [Armed Forces of the
Philippines] contributed to their bad image and the declaration of
the military that the internally-displaced persons are reserved
forces of the MILF is a blunder in the war for propaganda,” Murad
said.
The military claimed more than a
thousand rebels were killed in the fighting since last year. But
Murad denied the report and said MILF forces killed about 500
soldiers and captured their weapons, including two unmanned aerial
vehicles shot down in Maguindanao.
One of them was a US military spy
plane and the other was believed to be owned by the Philippine Army.
US troops are deployed in Maguindanao and helping the local military
fight terrorism.
Officials condemn
The Philippine Army condemned the
recent terrorists attack, saying it “manifests the perpetrators’
intention to harm innocent civilians”
Malacañang echoed those sentiments.
“I strongly condemn this most
recent act of terrorism victimizing innocent civilians,” Jesus
Dureza, the President’s legal counsel and incoming adviser on
Mindanao affairs said in an interview. “This murderous act of
insanity although inflicting injury and misery on hapless civilians
cannot and will not succeed in instilling fear and weaken the
peace-loving populace.”
“On the contrary, this
incident will all the more strengthen the affected communities
resolve to contend with and overcome the evil designs of those
behind this cowardly act of treachery and violence,” he added.
Dureza also called on Cotabato
residents to unite and to help get rid of terrorist acts, adding
that government security forces will track down those responsible.
In a separate interview, Press
Secretary Cerge Remonde said the President has directed security
forces to get into the bottom of the attack, arrest those
responsible immediately, and ensure the security of residents in the
area.
President Arroyo also gave an
instruction to the Department of Social Welfare and Development to
help people affected by the Sunday’s bombing.
Asked if he thinks the recent
wave of bombing related to destabilization moves, he said they do
not have an idea who the perpetrators were and the police and
military authorities should investigate first.
He added that they were not
considering the MILF to be behind the attack and that they were
hoping that it would not affect the resumption of the peace talks.
“We don’t think they are
involved as it is now we would want to observe the peace process,”
he said.
--WITH AFP, Jefferson Antiporda, Julmunir I. Jannaral And Angelo
S. Samonte
|
