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Monday, December 13, 2004
GenSan blast kills 15, shocks holiday crowds
GENERAL SANTOS -- A powerful explosion rocked a public market packed with Christmas shoppers in General Santos City Sunday, killing at least 15 people including a child and injuring some 58 others, police said.
The 4 p.m. blast, apparently from a homemade bomb or a grenade concealed in a box, killed three people instantly and destroyed at least two stalls in the market's meat section, Police Superintendent Willy Dangane said.
Eight other people later died in hospitals, police investigator Captain Maximo Sebastian said in an Associated Press report.
Witnesses were able to identify only two--Erning Plasabas and Elmer Causing--of those who died. They were meat vendors and they were killed instantly. Killed together with them was a still unidentified woman whose body was badly burned as a result of the explosion.
"The market was packed with people because there were Christmas flea market stalls there, and the explosion was powerful," Sebastian said.
Police cordoned off the area, fearing more explosives may have been planted, said Army Col. Medardo Geslani, who heads a regional anti-terrorism force.
"It was most possibly caused by an improvised explosive," said Geslani, adding that security forces will bolster security in public places, intensify patrols and set up checkpoints.
Shortly after the attack in General Santos, authorities placed neighboring Davao City on red alert, intensifying police and military visibility in various entry points to the city and crowded places, such as public markets, malls and schools.
Security was also tightened in Davao International Airport and Sasa wharf, both sites of past bombings, and other ports.
Dangane said no one has claimed responsibility for the bombing and added he could not immediately name any suspect.
Army Col. Medardo Geslani, who heads a regional anti-terrorism force, said it was not yet clear if terrorist groups were involved.
The blast, according to Dangani, could be the work of criminals who are on the run following a massive drive against illegal activities in the city.
General Santos Mayor Pedro Acharon Jr., who was in Cebu Sunday, condemned the bombing.
Also quick to denounce the dastardly act were President Arroyo and Senators Richard Gordon and Aquilino Pimentel Jr.
"We condemn in the strongest possible term the attack against civilians. There is no justification whatsoever or this heinous deed. The police and the military authorities are now investigating the incident," said Arroyo in a statement read by her spokesman Ignacio Bunye.
Bunye said Arroyo wants the culprits brought to justice. He said the National Government will be extending assistance to the victims.
Pimentel said in a text message to Sun.Star Davao publisher Antonio M. Ajero that the blast was "the work of beasts who want death and destruction to devastate Mindanao."
The Mindanao congressman also urged government to push vigorously the Mindanao peace plan.
"This is a terrorist attack by any measure," Gordon, who heads the Philippine Red Cross, said in a television interview. He criticized the military and police for failing to prevent the attack despite what he said was intelligence information indicating a planned terror strike in the city.
Gordon urged Red Cross chapters in nearby provinces to donate blood for the injured.
Mayor Acharon, who was supposed to leave Cebu for Manila Monday, is cutting short his trip and taking the first flight back to his city.
He declined to conclude that the blast was the handiwork of extremists.
"Actually, daghan ta og tan-awonon (There are many angles to look into)," he said.
A powerful explosion also exploded just outside a department store in the city on April 21, 2002, killing 15 people and maiming 55 others.
Some two years earlier, a series of explosions that wounded several persons hit the city.
Also in May of 2000, two bombs exploded just outside City Hall, killing a tricycle driver.
Despite a crackdown by the military and police, militants have staged bomb attacks and maintain a presence in General Santos, a bustling port city 1,000 kilometers south of Manila.
The Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic organization that appears on a US list of terror groups, claimed responsibility for a bomb that killed more than 100 people on a ferry leaving Manila in February. (Edwin Espejo/JMR/AP)
(December 13, 2004 issue)
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