News Analysis: Bombings could impact on peace process with Moro rebels

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - President Benigno Aquino III has not discounted the possibility that some groups bent on sabotaging the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) could be behind the recent bombings in Mindanao.

On Wednesday, Aquino said that one angle being looked at was the potential "spoilers" to the peace negotiations with MILF.

The Manila government is about to conclude talks with the MILF on the remaining annexes to the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro that was signed last October.

"Let's not forget that there are sectors that don't want the peace process to continue," Aquino said as he vowed to use the full force of the law to go after the perpetrators of the successive bombings.

Mindanao has been rocked by a series of bombings within the last two weeks with the blast in Cagayan de Oro on July 26 and in Cotabato City, the seat of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), on Aug. 5.

In the Cotabato blast, eight people died while 40 others were injured. In the Cagayan de Oro bombing, six people died and another 40 were injured.

Under the proposed peace accord with the MILF, the ARMM would be replaced by the Bangsamoro, a more autonomous juridical entity with sovereign powers.

On Wednesday morning, seven soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb blast in Shariff Mustapha Saydona town in Maguindanao. Earlier on the same day, a bomb blasted off near a radio station in Midsayap, North Cotabato.

Maguindanao province is where Camp Darapanan, the main headquarters of the MILF, is located.

Negotiators of both the government and the MILF have condemned the bomb attacks.

University of the Philippine Professor Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, chief government negotiator, has called on the people of Mindanao to "rage against the violence" that is happening in various parts of the region.

Speaking at a peace forum in Iligan City, which is adjacent to Cagayan de Oro City, the site of the first bomb blast, Ferrer said the people of Mindanao should stand up and should not allow these to happen again.

Ferrer said that even if the bombings were not linked to efforts to derail the peace process, these have left a negative impression on the capacity of the two parties to find a lasting solution to the conflict in the region.

"Bombings and other inhumane acts have not softened our resolve to continue to work for non-violence, peace and development in these areas that have suffered far too long from hostilities," Ferrer added.

The MILF has also condemned the bombings. "This is an act of evil, this is un-Islamic, innocent civilians suffered because of this one evil act, many of the victims were Muslims," said Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chair for political affairs.

"Whoever did this deserves the wrath of Allah," said Muhammad Ameen, head of the MILF secretariat. He said that during Ramadan, it is prohibited to initiate fighting even if there is an ongoing war between two parties.

Meanwhile, Director General Alan Purisima, chief of the Philippine National Police, told a Senate hearing that they have not discounted possibilities that the spate of bomb attacks in Mindanao could be the handiwork of a terror group linked to al- Qaeda.

Purisima made the revelation as security officials admitted before a Senate inquiry that they have received and were verifying intelligence information that major cities in Mindanao would be the target of bombings even before the explosion in Cagayan de Oro City last July 26.

Some observers said that the bombings indicate similarities to the Dec. 30, 2000 attacks in the country claimed by the terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.

But President Aquino has earlier said that the incidents in Mindanao were not related to the global alert against attacks by terrorists linked to al-Qaida.

"At this point in time, the suspects have been the objects of our concern for a very long time, and we've been pursuing the same suspects," Aquino said.

In Cotabato City, Mayor Japal Guiani said the perpetrators could be some of his "critics and politicians funded by the illegal drugs trade."

He said a powerful group might have been hurt by the city's peace and order campaign that contained cases of kidnapping and other crimes in the city related to illegal drugs since 2010.

Guiani said the bomb used during Monday's attack was similar to the "enflaming" explosive that destroyed commercial establishments at Awang Airport in Maguindanao in a terrorist attack in 2003. It was made from a 105 mortar shell wired and wrapped in phosphorus and a combustible substance, such as a gasoline-soaked jute sack.

"This means that the maker or makers of both bombs are experts, and they both belong to the same category of high-profile terrorism," he said.