Sayyaf bandits blamed for Zambo blast

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Abu Sayyaf bandits emerged as the main suspects in a blast that hit a busy row of roadside eateries and pubs here Sunday night, killing five and wounding 46 others, Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Diomedio Villanueva said yesterday.

"The attack, by the manner it was done, points to the Abu Sayyaf," Villanueva told reporters, adding that the bandits may have conducted the bombing to force the military to shift their focus of operation from nearby Basilan island.

"The Abu Sayyaf bandits are on the run," he said. "They’ve nowhere to hide and to relieve the pressure, they conducted bombings in Zamboanga."

Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes agreed with Villanueva on the suspects and possible motive.

"It’s my impression that the Abu Sayyaf set off the blast to divert the military attacks. We know the people who are capable of preparing this form of explosive," Reyes said during a forum at the Manila Hotel.

Interior Secretary Jose Lina also tagged the Abu Sayyaf as the prime suspects and warned of more attacks as the military intensified its search-and-destroy operations against the bandit group.

"The Abu Sayyaf members are behind this bombing although we have not exactly pinpointed who," Lina told ABS-CBN television.

"We have reason to be alarmed," he said. "We have been on high alert for several months... for fear that they may try attacks on other urban centers and here in Metro Manila."

Philippine National Police chief Director General Leandro Mendoza said local authorities are still investigating the blast but placed the entire city on heightened alert.

Mendoza, who is set to visit Zamboanga City today or tomorrow, also ordered police regional police chief Superintendent Simeon Dizon to increase security measures in the area.

Armed Forces Southern Command (Southcom) spokesman Col. Francisco Gudane earlier said investigators suspected the bomber was among the fatalities and named a local security guard, Isnin Asner Sultan, whose face and one hand were blown off by the blast.

But the guard’s employers belied the accusation, saying Sultan, employed by a commercial establishment in the area, "was a good security guard."

Chief Inspector Jose Bayani Gucela, police bomb squad chief, said an unidentified man left a can packed with a kilogram of explosives at one of the eateries at the Zamboanga Puericulture Center along Purisima street at about 8 p.m. Sunday.

Gucela said potassium nitrate was the explosive likely used, spiked with nails of different sizes.

"But the type of bomb was a high order detonation because all ingredients were burned," Gucela said, adding that that made it more difficult to determine the bomb type.

A shopkeeper became suspicious and asked Sultan to report it to the police but the guard decided to shake the can, causing it to explode.

Some of the victims died on the spot while others died en route to hospitals in the city.

Aside from Sultan, police said the four other fatalities were Cathy Cordita, 9; Jimmy Olias, Gerard Manzo and a still unidentified man.

The powerful explosion also damaged the ceilings of two stalls, blasted the concrete fence and created a two-foot wide and one-foot deep crater.

Minutes after the explosion, the bomb squad also defused another bomb in front of the Chowking fast-food restaurant.

Training of special forces to continue

The blast occurred as a team of US military advisers began training elite Filipino troops to be deployed against the Abu Sayyaf, who are holding 11 hostages, including an American missionary couple.

The 22 military advisers, who were barracked in the city when the blast occurred, are now confined to the Southcom headquarters but would continue their daily visits to Basilan.

"They can’t drink and they can’t go out" but their normal schedule will not be disrupted, Gudane said.

The defense secretary, however, clarified that the military advisers are only supposed to come up with strategies to crush the Abu Sayyaf and not to engage in combat.

"We are supposed to come up with strategies that will hasten the solution of the problem against terrorism, particularly the Abu Sayyaf. It is the purpose of the meeting," Reyes said.

"After the meeting, we expect both sides to be better informed and equipped to combat terrorism," he added.

At the same time, Reyes ruled out suggestions to stand down the military operations against the Abu Sayyaf during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts on Nov. 17.

Reyes said the government respects Ramadan but stressed that the Abu Sayyaf themselves are perverting their religion.

"We respect Ramadan as part of Islam but the Abu Sayyaf do not even respect their own religion. What they do is perversion. They call themselves Muslims but they kill innocent people," Reyes said.

Southcom chief Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu, for his part, expressed regret following the blast but vowed to pursue the search and destroy operation against the bandits.

"We will not stop until we get them," Cimatu said even as he belied reports that the bandits’ American hostages have already been executed.

Cimatu said an Abu Sayyaf bandit, whom he refused to identify, surrendered to the military hours before the explosion in the village of Tuburan.

The surrenderee clamed to have come from the group of bandit spokesman Abu Sabaya.

"He told us they are already few, demoralized and running out of food supplies but the Americans are still there," Cimatu said. - With reports from Christina Mendez, Cecille Suerte Felipe