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Monday, August 29, 2005
Sayyafs tagged in Basilan ferry bombing
By Al Jacinto
BASILAN -- Authorities are closely looking into the involvement of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf in Sunday's ferry bombing that left 30 people wounded in Lamitan town, Basilan province, a known terrorist stronghold in the southern Philippines.
Dozens were hurt in the blast that tore through the lower deck of the ferry m/v Dona Ramona at around past 7 a.m. The island's military chief, Brigadier General Raymundo Ferrer, said the explosive was left near the deck's commissary where dozens of passengers were seated.
"It was a terror attack," he said at a hospital in Lamitan, where most of the wounded passengers were treated for third degree burns.
Dispatched to Basilan to help local police in the investigation were members of the Zamboanga City Police Office Explosive Ordnance Division (EOD).
Basilan Police Chief Abdulwahab Karimuddin met and briefed the EOD team about the progress of the investigation into the Sunday bombing.
He said police in Basilan have been placed on high alert because of the incident.
"We assure the public that the authorities are on top of the situation," he said.
Karimuddin also interviewed several blast victims for a description of the man who left the bomb and said he would have a cartographic sketch made.
One of those injured, Private First Class Edwin Calinsag, said a young man sporting a ponytail walked past him, left a box near the commissary, and then hurriedly went out. The package later exploded and a ball of fire engulfed the lower deck, he said.
"I thought he was just a port worker. He came down with the package and then went out. There was a loud explosion, and I saw a ball of fire and then smoke, and everybody was screaming and running and crying," he said.
"There was chaos and confusion and when the smoke cleared, there were people wounded, badly burned and down on the floor. I myself and my wife are also injured," Calinsag, who was on a rest and recreation break, said.
At least 30 people were injured in the blast, said military spokesman Colonel Buenaventura Pascual.
Chief Superintendent Sukarno Ikbala, chief of the police forces in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm), appealed to the public to help authorities by providing information on suspicious persons.
"Terrorism has no place in Mindanao and we should unite together to fight the menace of society," he said.
New Armm Governor Datu Zaldy Ampatuan condemned the attack and vowed to pursue government's anti-terror campaign in the five provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu that compose the Muslim autonomous region.
Police said they were investigating what type of explosives were used in the attack. The smell of gunpowder persisted inside the ferry, the lower deck of which was destroyed by the powerful blast.
"Many of those wounded told police investigators that they smelled something, like gunpowder after the explosion," the spokesman of Basilan Governor Christopher Puno said.
The ferry, bound for Zamboanga City, was picking up passengers in Lamitan when the bomb exploded.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but authorities believed the blast was the handiwork of the Abu Sayyaf group.
The attack occurred merely two days after military chief General Generoso Senga inspected troops in the southern Philippines and vowed an intensified anti-terror campaign in the troubled southern region, where security forces are fighting members of the Abu Sayyaf group.
Senga ordered Friday a major offensive against the Abu Sayyaf group, blamed for the series of bombings and attacks on civilian targets in main Mindanao island, and also an intensified hunt for members of the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiya, believed to be hiding in the jungles of central Mindanao.
"We are intensifying our operation against the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiya," Senga told reporters.
Senga earlier deployed 400 marine soldiers in areas where the Abu Sayyaf are actively operating. Troops are fighting Abu Sayyaf militants in Jolo island and in Maguindanao province, where ten soldiers had been wounded in clashes last week.
He said the operation is part of the government's anti-terror campaign. The Abu Sayyaf was also blamed for two bombings in Zamboanga City this month that wounded 26 people.
The United States listed the Abu Sayyaf as a foreign terrorist organization and froze it assets abroad. Washington also offered as much as $5 million bounty for the capture of known Abu Sayyaf leaders, including Janjalani for the killing of two kidnapped US citizens in 2002 in the southern Philippines. (Sun.Star Zamboanga/Sunnex)
(August 29, 2005 issue)
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