4 hurt in Maguindanao gas station blast; MILF eyed

Four people were seriously wounded on Saturday in a bomb blast at a gasoline station in central Mindanao, the military said.

Authorities suspect the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) secessionist rebels were behind the attack in Shariff Aguak, the capital of Maguindanao, said Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero, Armed Forces Southern Command spokesman.

The homemade bomb was concealed in a plastic bag and left in a garbage can, triggering an explosion that damaged the Petron gasoline station.

"Four civilians were wounded in the attack. An improvised explosive device was used by suspected MILF rebels in the bombing," Lucero said.

"Apart from shrapnel wounds, all of the four victims suffered serious burns," Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said.

He said the bomb was fashioned from a 60-mm. mortar round, rigged with a timer. Ando identified the victims as Dina Datuan, 30; Daily Oke, 15; Jonny Rex, 17; and a teenager identified only as Bulldog.

"We have no suspects yet in mind, but troops are helping the police in tracking down the suspects in this senseless attack." Lucero added that extortionists may be responsible.

Witnesses said they saw a man place the explosive in the garbage can and hurriedly left.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu denied their group was involved in the blast.

The gas station is owned by Datu Andal Amapatuan Jr., son of the provincial governor, who has survived three ambush attempts by suspected MILF rebels in the past.

Military sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bomb blast could be an MILF reprisal for the governor’s hardline stand towards the rebels. In April, a mortar attack blamed on the MILF marred the wedding of another son of Ampatuan.

The MILF is the country’s main Muslim insurgent group which has been fighting for an independent Islamic state in Mindanao since 1977.

Intelligence officials have linked the separatist group to the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah militant group blamed for the Oct. 12 bombing in Bali, Indonesia, that killed more than 190 people.

The MILF has denied allegations it was a terrorist organization and insisted it remains committed to peace talks with the government after signing a ceasefire pact last year.

The government and the estimated 12,000-strong MILF have been holding informal talks, brokered by Malaysia. The government signed a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front in 1996.

Earlier, Presidential Adviser on Special Concerns Norberto Gonzales said Washington was planning to include the MILF in its list of "terrorist" organizations. But he backtracked, saying the plan was still under review.

A US official told President Arroyo that the United States will not declare the MILF a terrorist organization unless the Philippine government agrees.

Francis Taylor, the State Department coordinator for counter-terrorism with the rank of ambassador-at-large, said Washington was closely monitoring the peace talks.

Once an organization is declared "terrorist" by the US government, it becomes illegal for US citizens to provide support to that organization.

Financial institutions are also required to block its assets and members and supporters of that organization are barred from entering the United States or become subject to deportation.

In August, Washington declared the Communist Party of the Philippines a terrorist organization as part of its global war on terrorism. The Philippine government welcomed the US action.

The CPP protested the terrorist tag, saying it is a legitimate revolutionary movement, decriminalized by the Philippine government after the 1986 ouster of strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

The MILF earlier denied US news reports that it has ties with al-Qaeda and that it built two training camps for the terrorist network in the 1990s.

Members of Jemaah Islamiyah reportedly trained in those camps, which were shut down by the military in an offensive against the MILF in 2000.

Police and military forces across the country remain on high alert after a spate of bombings last month, mostly in Zamboanga City, that left 23 people dead.

Officials had earlier blamed at least three of the bombings on the Abu Sayyaf group, which was allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network.

The US government considers the Abu Sayyaf a terrorist organization. Early this year, about 1,000 US troops held counter-terrorism exercises in Basilan to help Philippine forces better fight the Abu Sayyaf. – With Roel Pareño, AFP