MANILA - A “sophisticated” bomb intended for a pre-selected target killed a legislator and three people at the House of Representatives, the national police chief said yesterday.
Preliminary police findings indicate the bomber was experienced and bolstered the police theory that the explosion was aimed specifically at Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar, who was killed in the blast, said PNP Director-General Avelino Razon.
“The one who made this bomb was pretty experienced. It is sophisticated,” he said, citing the way the bomb went off to create a 180-degree blast arc to hit Akbar as he was departing the Congress building.
The police ruled out terrorism.
“We have established that it is not a terrorist attack,” said National Capital Region Police Chief Geary Barias.
“It was really targeted at (Akbar) because of the remote control detonation,” he said.
The question of who was behind the blast that killed Akbar and three other people remains unresolved. Seven others were injured.
The explosion late Tuesday ripped through the south wing of the Batasan Pambansa complex after most congressmen had left.
Police have recovered a mobile telephone that was apparently used to set off the bomb and nails used as shrapnel. It is believed that the bomb was hidden in a parked motorcycle.
Razon said he doubted the bomb was a terrorist attack aimed a general destruction, saying the bomber could have set it off in a place that would have killed more congressmen.
Armed groups
Police believe the bomb was intended for Akbar, who represents the southern island of Basilan, a haunt of armed groups like the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf and political warlords.
The Abu Sayyaf has been linked by intelligence agencies to the al-Qaida terror network and has carried out bombing attacks in the past.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Buenaventura Pascual said the last time he saw a similar bomb, hidden in a motorcycle and set off with a mobile phone, was in 2004. That bomb was the work of the Abu Sayyaf.
He said this was not confirmation however the militant group was behind the latest attack.
The Arroyo administration offered a P5-million reward for information leading to the arrest of the bomber.
Parking
Meanwhile, the Cebu Provincial Capitol is not taking any chances and asked a company to provide bomb-sniffing dogs as added security measure.
Capitol consultant Byron Garcia said they asked a private firm to provide the K-9 dogs, which will cost Capitol P16,000 a month.
He also disallowed the parking of motorcycles at the vicinity of the driveway leading to the governor’s office.
Garcia said that as head of the Province, the governor is their prime concern because of her stand against insurgents.
He also ordered the guards to carefully check the bags and other packages that visitors will bring inside the Capitol building.
All visitors are also required to leave an identification card with the guard when entering Capitol.
Capitol started to implement stricter security measures after the killing of Sta. Fe town mayoral bet Roger Ilustrisimo Sr. inside the compound days before the May 14 elections.
But Garcia said they have to strengthen it further because of the bombing at the Batasan Pambansa complex.
Barias said Akbar had lived the colorful life of a former rebel, preacher, activist and one-time smuggler who turned the island province into his fiefdom, and along the way earned political foes.
Barias earlier said the attacker was probably within Akbar’s sight when the bomb on a parked motorcycle was detonated using a cell phone.
He said police have made no arrests so far.
In his only speech at the House of Representatives two months ago, Akbar, 47, said he joined his guerrilla father as a teenager in the Moro National Liberation Front, a Muslim rebel group that dropped its secessionist goal and signed a peace accord with the government in 1996.
He later took up Islamic studies in Syria, had military training in Libya and became a preacher and an MNLF deputy guerrilla commander.
‘Not acceptable’
Barias said Akbar joined the Abu Sayyaf in the 1990s when it had just launched a campaign to set up an Islamic caliphate in the southern Philippines.
As the group started attacking Christians, kidnapping for ransom and beheading hostages, Akbar quit and supported US-backed military operations against the militants in Basilan, Barias said.
Akbar had denied any Abu Sayyaf links, calling such allegations “a lie told a thousand times” by the military, police and his political enemies. But he admitted meeting with the Abu Sayyaf founder, Abdurajak Janjalani—who was killed in 1998—while the two were in Libya and later in the Philippines.
Akbar said Janjalani’s behavior “is not acceptable to my taste.”
Development
As Basilan governor in 2002, he welcomed US troops who trained Filipino soldiers battling the Abu Sayyaf. Over the years, the island was gradually transformed from a militant hotbed into a showcase of counterterrorism success and humanitarian development.
In his own words, Akbar said he used to be “a laborer, a driver, a bakery owner, a fishpond owner, a fish broker, a banana broker, a cigarette smuggler, a coconut harvester, a rebel, a student.”
He had many enemies, including some who ran and lost against one of his three wives, who succeeded him as Basilan governor. Another wife won as mayor of the provincial capital. (AFP/AP)/MBG)
