ZAMBOANGA CITY, 24 June 2006 — A bomb exploded in a public market in the southern Philippine province of Maguindanao early yesterday as a convoy carrying a key ally of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was passing by, killing six people and wounding nine others, authorities said.
Andal Ampatuan, the governor of Maguindanao, was unhurt, local army commander Col. Felipe Tabas said.
The bomb was placed near a jeepney parked on a road across the market in Shariff Aguak town, about 900 kilometers southeast of Manila, where the politician’s convoy had passed.
Five of the dead — including two of Ampatuan’s relatives — came from one of the vehicles in the governor’s convoy, Tabas said.
Provincial Administrator Nori Unas said the governor was obviously the target of the attack.
“There’s no other target but the governor,” Lumana Gunting, the police chief of Maguindanao province, also said.
Ampatuan was on his way to a family farm when the bomb went off minutes after his convoy passed.
Four of those killed, including a bodyguard, two relatives of the governor and a former town mayor, were in the sixth car of the convoy going to Ampatuan’s farm, Unas told reporters.
Unas identified those killed as Kamlaon Ampatuan, the governor’s nephew; Ed Mangansakan, a provincial employee; and their driver and escort, who was a government soldier.
The other victim was identified as Cajilo Datumanong, who was on a motorcycle when the bomb exploded, the military report said. Datumanong was the nephew of Rep. Simeon Datumanong, a former justice secretary.
Police said the rest of the wounded were passers-by. The military’s Southern Command said the wounded included two children.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“This is the handiwork of local terrorists,” Tabas said, adding that Ampatuan may have been targeted because he has been an outspoken supporter of the government’s anti-terrorist drive. He said there were indications the bombing was carried out by Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional network of Muslim militants linked to Al-Qaeda.
The report said the bomb was an 81mm mortar round with a battery pack used to ignite it. Many of the bombs used in past attacks were fashioned from mortar shells.
But Ampatuan dismissed the idea and said he suspected his attackers came from another group “considered as an enemy of the state,” which he did not identify.
Leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which had been linked to an attempt on Ampatuan’s life in the past, has denied any hand in yesterday’s blast.
“The MILF is religiously observing a truce with the Philippine government and we have nothing to do with the blast. The MILF has repeatedly denounced terrorism and we are currently negotiating peace with the Arroyo government,” said spokesman Eid Kabalu.
President Arroyo opened peace talks with the MILF in 2001.
Ampatuan has survived several assassination attempts, including one in 2001 when assailants opened fire on his convoy. That same year, he survived another ambush.
In December 2002, a bomb explosion killed his son, Saudi, who was the mayor of Datu Piang town.
Ampatuan is one of the most powerful Muslim leaders in the Philippines, wielding a great deal of political and economic influence.
Ampatuan’s son, Zaldy, is the governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which was created after a large Muslim separatist group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996.
Three other sons are town mayors.
A splinter group, the MILF, has continued to wage a separatist rebellion, although it signed a cease-fire agreement three years ago amid ongoing peace talks.
President Arroyo’s perceived support for Zaldy Ampatuan angered former fighters of the MNLF, who had held the post of governor since signing a peace deal in 1996. (With reports from Agencies)
