ZAMBOANGA CITY, 12 July 2003 — A man claiming to be a leader of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap gang has claimed responsibility for the bombing of a crowded market in Koronadal that killed 3 people on Thursday, South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Fuentes said.
The governor said the mysterious man calling himself Abu Solaiman phoned Koronadal Mayor Fernando Miguel minutes after the blast and claimed he was behind the attack that also injured 27 people.
“I don’t why know Solaiman is calling up the mayor everytime there’s an attack,” Fuentes said.
It was the second time that Solaiman phoned the mayor to tell him that the Abu Sayyaf was behind the bombing. Solaiman also phoned the mayor minutes before a powerful bomb went off inside the same market that killed 10 people on May 10.
Regional police chief Manuel Raval said the latest blast had “the same pattern, the same operation, the same targets” as previous bomb attacks blamed on the MILF.
The bomb was made of ball bearings, a battery and explosives, Chief Superintendent Raval said.
Mayor Miguel said the rebel was demanding 1 million pesos ($18,518) from him. HE said that three suspects were seen fleeing the market just before the explosion. No arrests have been made.
Officials, however, doubted Solaiman’s claim to be an Abu Sayyaf member and suspicions were directed at the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the biggest armed group fighting for a separatist Islamic state in the southern Philippines.
Yesterday, President Gloria Arroyo warned that her government will call off peace talks with the MILF if its members were found responsible for the latest terror attack in the troubled south.
Speaking at the site of bomb attack in Koronadal, Arroyo vowed to prosecute those responsible. “Nothing in the peace process will deter us from punishing terrorists and bringing them to justice,” she told a crowd gathered at the market.
In a separate statement issued by the presidential palace, Arroyo said: “This event will not deter us from preparations for the peace negotiations, unless the MILF is proven to be involved.”
Just hours after Arroyo spoke at Koronadal, a man was shot dead by police when he tried to detonate two grenades at a public market in neighboring Kidapawan in Northern Cotabato province, police said.
Police were interrogating the man’s six companions.
Interior Secretary Jose Lina later said the suspects are believed hiding in “sanctuaries” of the MILF but he did not say if they were linked to the rebels.
The MILF vehemently denied involvement in the bombing.
“We have no participation to this terrorism and the MILF has condemned the attack on innocent civilians,” said Front spokesman Eid Kabalu.
Kabalu said Malaysia, which has been invited to monitor any cease-fire between the MILF and Manila, should send a team to investigate the incident.
“We want the matter to be thoroughly investigated. We requested the Malaysian monitoring team to be dispatched immediately and this will become their test mission,” he said.
The MILF was also blamed for the May 10 blast in Koronadal but no one was formally charged over that attack.
Both the government and the 12,500-strong MILF have been working to reopen peace talks but Manila charges that the MILF was setting conditions that effectively derailed any resumption of negotiations.
Whoever was responsible, the military had only one description for them: “psychopaths.”
“It can only be the handiwork of people with a mind of a psychopath and no regard for human lives,” said Col. Fredesvindo Covarrubias, chief of the military’s Civil Relations Group in Mindanao. (Additional inputs from agencies)
