ZAMBOANGA CITY, 14 January 2007 — Communist rebels yesterday joined the finger-pointing fray over the latest wave of bomb attacks in the southern Philippines and said the Arroyo government was the likeliest culprit.
Three homemade bombs exploded late Wednesday in the cities of General Santos, Kidapawan and Cotabato, all in central Mindanao, killing at least 7 people and injuring more than 40 others.
Some local politicians and police and military officials tagged renegade members of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) of perpetrating the attack.
MILF leaders, on the other hand, pointed to the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah. They said these two groups have the motive to stage a bombing campaign because many of their fighters have been killed in an ongoing military offensive in the southern island of Jolo.
Police investigators say all the Jemaah Islamiyah, Abu Sayyaf and rogue MILF members were involved in at least one of the blasts.
But communist rebels believe it was the government that would benefit from the bombings.
“The Arroyo regime stood to gain with the recent attacks as these will justify the passage of an anti-terrorism bill and a counterpart pact by the ASEAN members in Cebu,” said Rubi del Mundo, spokesman of a regional chapter of the National Democratic Front (NDF).
“The latest Mindanao bombings serve to push foreign delegates of the ongoing summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cebu City to sign a convention urging the ASEAN to improve cross-border cooperation and share intelligence information against terrorist organizations,” Del Mundo said.
He was referring to the agreement signed by leaders of the 10 ASEAN member nations yesterday in the central Philippine city of Cebu.
Del Mundo did not identify who were behind the bombings, but said they were the “war dogs” of the Arroyo administration. The NDF is the political wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, whose armed group, the New People’s Army (NPA), is fighting for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country.
Military Issue
Meanwhile, the police crime laboratory in Central Mindanao has found that the explosives used in the General Santos City contained TNT and C4, explosives widely used by military forces around the world.
Superintedent Salome Jose, Central Mindanao police crime laboratory chief, said the explosives were packed into a water pump tube, which was also loaded with ball bearings, nails and other metal fragments as shrapnel. These were set off using a cell phone as a trigger.
Chief Superintendent German Doria, Central Mindanao police boss, said the type of bomb used in the General Santos blast differed from those used in the Cotabato City and the Kidapawan City bombings.
He said in the Cotabato City explosion, the bomb was fashioned out of an 81-millimeter mortar shell while the Kidapawan explosion was caused by a grenade. Doria said this made it difficult for the police to conclude the attacks were carried out by a single group.
Police, however, refused to speculate on the NDF’s statement that government agents were involved in the blasts.
Murder Charges
On Saturday, police filed murder charges against an alleged local JI operative and rogue MILF commanders in connection with the two bombings in Cotabato City that killed one person and wounded eight others.
Superintendent Paniares Adap, Cotabato City police chief, said those charged were Basit Usman, an alleged JI operative, and Said Pakiladato and Ameril Ombra Kato, all ranking MILF rebel commanders operating in Central Mindanao.
Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesman, said the information gathered by the police against Pakiladato and Kato was “tainted by politics.” He said the two rebel leaders are known political enemies of a powerful clan in Maguindanao. “They have been politically framed up,” he said.Adap said the MILF could help Pakiladato and Kato prove their innocence by letting them stand trial.
He said the MILF could turn over the two accused rebel leaders to the police.
Kabalu said the MILF was doing its own investigation.
Indonesian Suspect
In General Santos City, Senior Superintendent Alfredo Toroctocon, city police director, clarified that Indonesian Nicolas Keramis, 35, was only invited for questioning contrary to earlier reports he had been arrested.
“We don’t consider him a suspect yet. He was not arrested, he was just invited for questioning,” Toroctocon said.
But Toroctocon admitted that the police have information that Keramis, who was taken from his home in Calumpang village around 11 p.m. Friday, has links to JI finance officer Elmer Amran, one the principal suspects in the December 2004 public market explosion in General Santos City that killed 17 people and injured 80 others.
Keramis, Toroctocon claimed, was also a suspect in a bomb attack staged by the JI in Ternate, Indonesia.
He said officials from the Indonesian Consulate in Davao City would be coming over to see Keramis and confirm some information. (With a report by the Inquirer News Service)
