DAVAO CITY, 6 March 2003 — A day after a powerful bomb blast that killed 21 people and wounded 164 at the Davao International Airport, the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group came out in phone patched television interviews claiming responsibility.
But all fingers were pointed at the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the biggest Muslim separatist armed group in the country, which had earlier disowned the deadliest blast in Mindanao in four years.
Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Hamsiraji Sali in an interview apologized for the deaths of innocent civilians. He said the target was really the airport.
The intention, he said was to sabotage the Philippine economy and block businessmen from investing in Mindanao.
Nobody was biting Sali’s claim, with police and military officials saying Sali’s group has no capability right now to do it.
Col. Bonifacio Ramos, commander of a military unit going after Sali’s group on Basilan island, dismissed the claim as “a big lie.” He said Sali’s group was cornered in Basilan and unable to operate elsewhere.
While ruling out Abu Sayyaf role in the bombing, officials said it was possible that foreign terror groups such as the Southeast Asian Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) organization could also have a hand in it.
“They are not here in Davao, they don’t have the operators here in Davao so I doubt the statement of the Abu Sayyaf,” Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said.
Military officials were skeptical of the claim made by the man who said he was
Sali
Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya, the military commander for Mindanao, said Sali had tried to take credit for other bombings in Mindanao.
“Sali and his members are claiming a lot of things before, and, if you review the tapes of your interviews, most of them are lies,” he said.
Abaya also said “Sali is an Abu Sayyaf commander, who said a number of times he was going to surrender but would change his mind after getting earnest money.”
Five suspected bombers of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country’s largest separatist guerrilla force, were detained within hours of the blast, the worst terrorist attack in Southeast Asia since the bombing on the Indonesian resort of Bali in October that killed 202 people.
The MILF strongly denied involvement in the blast and said it also doubted Sali’s claim. MILF officials said they were willing to help investigators find out who were behind it.
Al-Haj Murad, the MILF’s military chief, condemned it as “a barbaric act.”
Speaking from Malaysia over the Cotabato City-based radio DXMS, Murad said MILF chair Salamat Hashim had instructed members of the MILF central committee “to condemn the attack and help Philippine authorities identify and arrest the suspects.”
“Only a man with a lunatic mind can do that,” Ghazali Jaafar, MILF vice chair for political affairs, said of the bombing.
But Secretary Reyes said he expected the MILF to issue the denial. “They do not really admit anything,” he said.
“It is possible that this is a set play, the MILF asking the (Abu Sayyaf) to own up to this dastardly act so that it (MILF) will retain whatever respect that it still has,” Reyessaid.
He said this would give the MILF leadership plausible deniability as it considers a government proposal to restart stalled peace talks. Interior Secretary Jose Lina said Sali’s statement could be a simple media diversionary tactic.
A Manila-based defense analyst, who asked not to be named, said investigators should also pursue the possible involvement of JI, blamed for the Bali attack as well as for plots against US and other western targets across Southeast Asia. “We can’t really discount the participation of foreign terrorist groups,” said the analyst Tillah.
President Arroyo said in Davao yesterday that while her government remained open to a political settlement to the 25-year separatist rebellion, “for those who continue to use violence as a means to carry out their message, there is also the arm of the law.”
Arroyo ordered an assault on a major MILF stronghold in Mindanao last month, a campaign that left nearly 200 guerrillas dead and displaced nearly a quarter of a million civilians
While warning the government of more “terrorist attacks” on strategic areas in Mindanao as a way of challenging the government, another explosion occurred in a shopping complex in Cotabato City.
Unpon reaching Davao yesterday, Arroyo went directly to see the blast scene, after which she went to a local funeral homes to condole with the families of five victims. She also extended her words of support and assurance of justice to wounded victims at the Davao Medical Center.
The entire Mindanao has been placed under heightened security due to the series of bombings but Defense Secretary Reyes said there’s no need to place Mindanao under a state of emergency.
