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Thursday, March 06, 2003
Blood and heartbreak at scene of blast
DAVAO -- American William P. Hyde, 59, had gone to the airport to pick up a fellow Protestant missionary when a powerful bomb went off at around 5:20 p.m. Tuesday. He was killed instantly.
At the same time, 19-year-old Kenneth Rasay, a third year Mass Communication student of the Ateneo de Davao University, was waiting excitedly for the arrival of his cousin at the waiting shed of the Davao International Airport.
His wait ended tragically when few feet away from where he stood, a bomb placed inside a backpack exploded, killing him instantly.
Hyde and Rasay were among the 23 people killed in the deadly bombing at the Davao International Airport. Close to 200 others were wounded, some in critical condition.
At a city hospital, blood covered the floor and injured children screamed as doctors treated casualties Wednesday of the deadly airport bombing in this southern city.
Outside the building, anxious relatives crowded around a billboard, looking for the names of their loved ones on a list of the dead and injured.
Amid the tragedy, the city of Davao, the commercial capital and largest city in Mindanao, struggled to return to normal as security was tightened to guard against further terrorist attacks.
The powerful bomb, hidden in a knapsack, ripped through a crowd of people including passengers who had just stepped off a commercial flight and residents waiting for guests flying into the city of 1.2 million.
The state-run Davao Medical Center had to turn away late arrivals as the crush of ambulances and volunteers bringing in scores of victims swiftly filled up the emergency room.
Amid a shortage of hospital beds, some of the casualties were given first aid on stretchers and on tables in the hospital reception area.
The hospitals and the Red Cross appealed to the public for blood donations.
The blast killed an American citizen, described by hospital staff and local police as a Protestant missionary, and injured three other Americans including a nine-month-old baby, hospital officials said.
The US embassy in Manila has yet to officially identify the American victims.
Also among the dead were 10-year-old Adelfa Lumanda and her elder sister Ronieta, 25, who were at the airport to meet their father on his return from a two-year work assignment in Japan. Their mother had gone to Manila to fetch her husband and was also on the same plane.
The plane carrying their parents was diverted elsewhere due to the bomb blast, a relative said. The parents still have not learned of the death of their daughters.
"We don't know yet how we are going to tell the parents," the grief-stricken family member said.
President flew into the city early Wednesday and lit candles at the bomb scene to honor the dead. She then visited the hospital to console several victims with multiple injuries.
Wearing a checkered dress and skirt and dark glasses to cover facial swelling from an eye infection, she tried to speak with them but the victims, covered with bandages and barely conscious, could hardly respond.
Arroyo conferred with their doctors and later handed each of the victims an envelope with an undisclosed amount of money.
Immediately after the explosion, Davao's Special Anti-Terrorist Unit cordoned off the blast site and painstakingly sifted through the wreckage of shattered plastic chairs, blood and human remains.
Authorities have since announced that nine suspects have been arrested, five of them alleged members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest Muslim separatist rebel group.
However a leader of the more radical Abu Sayyaf group, which has links to the al-Qaeda network, claimed responsibility for the attack in an interview with a local television station.
By Wednesday morning, the blast site had been largely swept clean of debris. Only the shattered roof of the damaged shed remained as evidence of the death and destruction that had marked the scene just hours earlier.
The airport resumed normal operations on Wednesday, but only a few passengers showed up at the normally bustling terminal.
Soldiers manned roadblocks on highways connecting Davao with neighboring General Santos city. AFP/ Sun.Star Davao |
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