COTABATO, 25 December 2002 — A bomb attack by suspected militants killed at least 13 people, including a town mayor, and wounded 12 in the southern Philippines, the military said yesterday.
Mayor Saudie Ampatuan, a Muslim, was walking outside his home in Datu Piang town when an electronically detonated bomb exploded by the road, killing him, four other local officials and several civilians, army spokesman Maj. Julieto Ando told Reuters.
Among those killed were a town councilor, the treasurer and a bodyguard, Ando said. The others were not immediately identified, Ando said. He said the death toll rose after authorities counted all the dead from hospitals in different towns.
Ando said the military suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels, because “it is only the MILF that is capable of making powerful homemade bombs.”
The military is holding a witness who claimed he saw a man known to be a follower of an MILF commander planting the bomb, Ando said. He added that the blast was probably caused by a 81 mm mortar detonated by a remote control device.
He said the blast occurred about 100 meters from the mayor’s residence as the mayor and his guests were walking outside. They had just attended a gathering in memory of a dead relative of the mayor, Ando said.
But MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu denied involvement, saying the mayor had many personal and political enemies.
“There is no reason for us to do that because the mayor is not our enemy,” he said. “In fact many of those injured are my relatives.”
Kabalu cautioned against rush judgments, saying “it won’t help to immediately make pronouncements and point a ... finger at anyone without an investigation.”
He also decried the statement by Office on Muslim Affairs Executive Director Zamzamin Ampatuan that the said 81 mm bomb could “only be found in the MILF arsenal.” The military has in the past blamed the MILF for similar bomb attacks in the area in which mortar shells were used.
In response to the attack, Ando said a battalion of about 500 soldiers was deployed to Datu Piang after MILF guerrillas were sighted near the area.
The rebels, who have signed a cease-fire pact with the government, have been fighting for self-rule in the southern Philippines for nearly three decades.
Ando also said the blast appears to be unrelated to the killing of Ampatuan’s younger brother, his brother’s wife and a friend during an altercation at a disco on Saturday. The Ampatuans allegedly retaliated for that killing by ambushing two relatives of the suspects.
Ando said Ampatuan is a “nemesis” of the MILF who survived a rebel ambush along with his father, Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan, earlier this year. Two of their bodyguards died in the attack.
Kabalu said the target of that ambush was the convoy’s armed escort.
Formal peace talks between the government and the MILF are expected to resume next month in Malaysia. Both sides have accused each other of violating a shaky 1997 truce. Negotiations were suspended in October 2001 after the two sides failed to agree on how to implement socio-economic projects in areas where the MILF operates.
