Saturday, June 24, 2006
Bomb blast kills 5; Maguindanao guv the target
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Five people were killed and eight others wounded in a powerful explosion Friday that ripped through a crowded market in the town of Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao province in the restive southern Philippine region, officials said.
Nori Unas, provincial administrator, said one of those killed was the nephew of Governor Andal Ampatuan, of Maguindanao, and that the attack targeted the politician who was unhurt in the blast. The bomb was left near a parked vehicle on the market where the politician's convoy had passed.
"The governor was obviously the target of the attack," Unas said. It was the fourth attempt on Ampatuan's life.
Ampatuan, a staunch supporter of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was on his way to a family farm when the bomb went off minutes after his convoy passed the spot in the market, he said.
Akmad Mamalinta, the chief of police in the Muslim autonomous region, said they were investigating the motive of the blast and would not say who were behind the attack. "We are still investigating the motive of the blast and who was behind this cowardly act," he said.
"Eight people were seriously wounded in the attack," Mamalinta said.
Unas identified those killed as Kamlaon Ampatuan, the governor's nephew; Ed Mangansakan, a provincial employee; and their driver and escort, who was a govenrment soldier; and Kahil Datumanong, a relative of Representative Simeon Datumanong of Maguindanao, who was near the blast site, he said.
Police said the explosive was inside a bag and left in the market and it exploded around 7:05 a.m. Ampatuan was previously ambushed allegedly by Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in the past and one of his sons, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, was killed in a bomb explosion in Maguindanao several years ago. The MILF denied it was involved in the attacks.
No group or individual claimed responsibility for the attack, but the area was scene of previous fighting between followers of Ampatuan and MILF forces.
The attack occurred just several blocks from the mansions of Andal and his son Zaldy Ampatuan, former Shariff Aguak mayor and now governor of the five-province Muslim autonomous region.
In February, security and rebel forces clashed for weeks in Shariff Aguak town, leaving more than a dozen people dead from both sides. The fighting erupted after the MILF opposed a provincial government road construction that rebels claimed would encroach into their territories in the village of Datu Unsay.
The clashes forced more than 20,000 civilians out of their homes in the town and the fighting threatened peace talks between the government and the MILF, the country's largest Muslim rebel group.
It was not immediately known if the rebels had anything to do with the latest explosion, but Eid Kabalu, the group's spokesman, said the MILF was not involved in the attack.
"The MILF is religiously observing a truce with the Philippine government and we have nothing to do with the blast. The MILF has repeatedly denounced terrorism," Kabalu said.
Arroyo opened peace talks with the MILF in 2001 in an effort to end more than three decades of bloody fighting in the south and develop the strife-torn, but mineral-rich region. (Sun.Star Zamboanga/Sunnex)
(June 24, 2006 issue)
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