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Sunday, September 14, 2003
Drilon urges authorities to solve Rizal Day bombing
SENATE President Franklin Drilon on Saturday lamented that the failure of the government's law enforcement agencies to solve the 3-year-old Rizal Day bombing has brought embarrassment to the country in the international community.
According to Drilon, the authorities failed to arrest and convict the other perpetrators of the bombings while the Indonesian government had already convicted those responsible for the Bali bombings, which happened only a year ago.
"Our failure to convict the persons responsible for terrorist bombings in Metro Manila, including the LRT bombing on December 30, 2000, embarrasses us before the international community, especially since Indonesia has already convicted and sentenced to death the mastermind in the Bali," Drilon said.
It can be recalled that 12 persons were killed and 19 others were wounded in the Rizal Day b
ombing.
Also, the senate chief said the failure of the police and justice authorities to arrest and convict the suspects of the LRT bombings was also a failure on the government's part to give justice to the victims.
Last week, it was reported that Indonesian court convicted Imam Samudra, a Muslim militant, as the intellectual mastermind in the bombings of Bali, Indonesia, which killed 202 persons.
Samudra is the second of the 30 suspects arrested in connection with the bombings who has been sentenced to death.
In the Philippines, however, Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, a self-confessed supplier of explosives for the LRT bombings, had escaped from his detention cell while Muklim Yunos has recanted his confession that he participated in the actual bombing.
Because of this development, Drilon said the country would create an impression of instability as far as the peace and order is concerned.
"The failure of our government to solve the crime and to bring their perpetrators to justice deplorably bolsters the impression abroad the Philippines is a weak state incapable of maintaining peace and order," he added.
He then appealed to the police and justice authorities to wind up their investigation of the terrorist act in Mindanao and Metro Manila over the past years, especially those remained unsolved for many years. (JPM)
(September 14, 2003 issue)
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