Blast near church kills 5, wounds 35 Philippine Daily InquirerINQUIRER.net
July 05, 2009
COTABATO CITY, Philippines – (UPDATE 3) Five people were killed and at least 35 others were wounded after an explosion ripped through a roadside eatery near a church in Cotabato City on Sunday morning, authorities said.
Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo had just finished reading the Sunday gospel and was about to start his homily at the Cotabato Immaculate Conception Cathedral when the explosion went off at around 8:40 a.m., officials said.
Malacañang ordered the police and the military to “exhaust all efforts to bring those responsible for this contemptible act to justice.”
“Those who seek to sow terror and chaos (and) destabilize the government and constitutional order will not go unpunished,” deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said.
The military said the explosion had the signature of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) since the explosive was made up of 60- and 80-millimeter mortar ammunition.
“Its plain terrorism by the special operations group of the MILF and we condemn this attack on innocent civilians,” Brawner told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) by phone Sunday.
But MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said an independent body should investigate the incident, as he blasted the military for “mind conditioning” the public to believe that the rebels were behind the attack.
Kabalu added that the military, too, had the capability to mount such an attack.
“Accusing and denying, denying and accusing repeatedly from both sides is bringing us nowhere. We have to have a neutral arbiter to decide which side is lying or telling the truth," Kabalu said.
"The frequent blame on us through the media is a good mind conditioning for the public to believe," he said.
The wounded included students, still in their school uniform, who served as sponsors of the mass, said Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane, Cotabato City police chief.
“The explosion was so loud as if the cathedral would collapse,” said Merly Sandoval, a churchgoer, said.
“People were running toward the altar after the blast ... it was like a very loud thunderstorm and the sound reverberated inside the jam-packed cathedral,” another church-goer Isabel Joven, said.
“Everybody was screaming, we saw blood coming out of those lying on the ground near the entrance of the cathedral compound,” Sandoval said.
One of the fatalities was identified as Ruby Ramirez, a “lechon” (roast pig) vendor.
Witnesses said a man was seen carrying two backpacks and left one at the “lechon” store on Quezon Avenue when bystanders noticed him.
When accosted, he ran toward the Church main entrance still carrying the backpack and was arrested by elements of Task Force Tugis. He is now undergoing tactical interrogation.
"We are condemning this dastardly and cowardly act to the strongest term," said Mayor Muslimin Sema, who also called on Muslim and Christian residents to instead stand united and help "identify those behind this cowardice and treachery."
Eleven-year-old Prince Allen Diaz, son of journalist Patricio Diaz Sr., was pronounced dead at the hospital. The elder diaz was wounded in the explosion.
“What has happened to us that even the innocents are not spared?” said the elder Diaz, whose family was about to enter the cathedral when the blast happened.
A soldier, Sergant Recillo Collado of the Army’s 38th Infantry Battalion, was also killed along with an elderly woman and a mentally-ill man.
Most of the wounded were rushed to the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center.
Doctor Abdullah Dumama, health director for Central Mindanao, identified some of the wounded as— Gwen Garica, Ferdinand Veloria, Jun Barbon, Besonin Sigad, Elmer Roble, Sony Lian, Rodrigo Omega, Albiar Purificacion, Jocelyn Abdullah, Maricel Escanel, Jeremy Dapilat, Victor Luna, Geovani Lumigquit, Freddie Millan, Beterlyn Sigas, Prescilo Coliat, and Sayre siblings Janisa, Junrel and Jeofrey.
Dumama, who helped supervise and attend to the injured at the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center here, said Ramirez died from blood loss and shock to see an arm severed due to the powerful blast.
Tommy Tee, a freelance photojournalist, said he was inside the cathedral listening to Quevedo's homily when the loud explosion interrupted the Mass, causing churchgoers to scamper toward the nearby gymnasium and cathedral parking lot.
He claimed to have seen soldiers in bloodied uniform, too.
"It's unfortunate that I forgot to carry with me my camera," he said, admitting that he usually leaves the apparatus at home every time he goes to hear Sunday Mass.
"It could have been a gory pictorial," Tee said.
Warnings of alleged stepped-up bombings by the MILF rebels in Central Mindanao cropped up as early as April this year as the military continued its pursuit for MILF commanders Ameril Ombra Kato, Abdurahman Macapaar, and Aleem Pangalian, who were allegedly responsible for raids on civilian communities in the region in August 2008.
It was the third time that the said cathedral was the target of a bombing, residents said. Police ordnance experts defused an explosive devise planted nearby in 1995. In January 1999, suspected terrorists detonated a powerful explosive at the gate of radio station dxMS which is adjacent to the cathedral. At least two persons from a group of a block time radio program hosts were wounded then.
Reports from Charlie Señase, Edwin O. Fernandez and Nash B. Maulana, Inquirer Mindanao; Jocelyn R. Uy, Philippine Daily Inquirer; INQUIRER.net
