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COTABATO: Foreign Islamic militants may have had a
link to a bombing outside a church in the southern Philippines that
killed five people and injured dozens, a military spokesman said
Monday.
Major Randolph Cabangbang said
investigators were probing whether Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the group
behind the Bali bombings, may have been involved in the blast
outside the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic cathedral.
The military also warned that
there could be follow-up bombings across the southern Philippines
island of Mindanao and said extra security measures would be put in
place.
Cabangbang told reporters a
number of JI militants are “here in the country.”
Known members of the group
Dulmatin, Umar Patek and Zulkifli bin Hir were thought to be
operating in the southern Philippines, he said, but added that there
was no proof as yet they were involved.
“There’s an ongoing operation
to capture those terrorists,” he added.
Philippines-based US military
advisers are helping with the investigation, Cabangbang added.
The Philippine military believe
JI militants in the Philippines have given bomb-making training to
another Islamic separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF).
Larger plot
The military also alleged that
the MILF was behind previous bombings of Christian targets in the
southern Philippines.
But the MILF denied any
involvement in Sunday’s bombing.
Armed Forces Public Information
Office Chief Romeo Brawner also on Monday said that the latest bomb
attack in Mindanao was part of a “grand plan” of the MILF to sow
terror in the region.
“Now we are not just focused on
running after the lawless MILF groups,” he added. “We are also
focused on ensuring that our cities particularly the highly
urbanized areas, like bus terminals, malls, churches and other
areas, are secured.”
He also said that the military
was cooperating with the Philippine National Police on the
tightening security.
“We believe that their [MILF’s]
main objective is on the tactical level in order to divert the focus
of our troops away from the pursuit of wanted MILF commander Umbra
Kato,” Brawner said.
But he explained that Central
Mindanao, not Metro Manila, was the target of the alleged plan.
MILF statement
“We are not responsible for the
bombing,” MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu told reporters also on Monday.
“We even condemn this attack.”
He also said that they have
started their own probe of the deadly attack. “We have began our
own investigation, and we also wanted to know who was behind the
bombing or whether the military or other group opposed to the peace
process was involved in the attack.”
Kabalu added that they suspected
that government soldiers were behind the spate of bombings in the
restive Muslim autonomous region where security and rebel forces
were fighting.
“There were persistent reports
from Muslim villagers that soldiers were behind the bombings to
discredit the MILF,” he told The Manila Times.
He said civilians reported on
Saturday that they saw a man clad in MILF uniform plant a bomb in
Maguindanao’s Datu Piang town and then retreat at an Army
detachment in Buayan village. The bomb exploded minutes later and
injured three people.
Palace denial
Also on Monday, Malacañang
denied that it was behind the recent bombings in Mindanao, as well
as in Metro Manila, as alleged by the MILF and the Communist Party
of the Philippines (CPP).
Earlier an explosive device
rocked the Office of the Ombudsman, but no one was hurt and there
was no property damage. Later, another bomb was found at the
Department of Agriculture, also in Metro Manila, but the explosive
was diffused.
“It’s too much already, [and]
they should not be saying those kinds of words because it could
confuse the public,” said Lorelei Fajardo, deputy presidential
spokesman. “What we need now is to find out who are the people
behind those attacks. We must condemn these acts since it affects
innocent civilians.”
She added that the job of the
government was to protect the people and the security of every
individual. “We cannot commit that kind of accusation.”
The communist party warned the
public against the chaos being fabricated by the Arroyo government,
such as the bombing in Mindanao and Metro Manila including Oplan
August Moon, as part of its sinister overall plot to justify
President Arroyo’s resorting to declaring martial law to prolong
her stay in power.
In a statement posted on
www.philippinerevolution.net, the party also called on Filipinos
“to employ to the fullest all forms of open protest and armed
resistance against all of Gloria Arroyo’s moves to perpetuate her
reign through all means foul and brutal.”
Despite the allegations, military
officials said that talks about the destabilization attempt against
the Arroyo administration, as well as about Oplan August Moon, were
mere rumors, and that these talks never posed any threat to national
security.
Probe continues
US Ambassador to the Philippines
Kristie Kenney, visiting the southern Philippines port of Zamboanga,
told reporters she hoped those responsible for the blast “be
brought to justice.”
But she declined to comment on
any US involvement in the investigation.
Police are interrogating a man
arrested by the military at the blast site on Sunday.
Rico Aburva, a 34-year-old
resident of nearby Sultan Kudarat town, was accused of planting the
improvised explosive device, said Chief Supt. Josefino Cataluna, the
regional police chief.
“The suspect was trapped
because he’s not familiar [with] the city,” said Lt. Col.
Jonathan Ponce, spokesman for an Army division based in Cotabato.
In Manila, Sen. Rodolfo Biazon,
chairman of the Senate Committee on National Defense, said he had
been asking the police and military about the bombings in Mindanao
and elsewhere, but they merely dismissed these as “isolated
cases.”
“The bombing in Cotabato is
already the 57th,” he added. “There were lost lives, property
destroyed, and yet there were no investigations conducted yet.”
He is also called for the
government to reassess on how to approach the bombing in Cotabato in
relation to the suspended on-going peace talks with the MILF.
“How do we assess our peace
process with them [MILF]? Do we just let the bombings happen
and stay mum about it?” he asked.
--AFP, Jefferson Antiporda, Al Jacinto, Angelo S. Samote And
Maria Nikka Garriga
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