EDITORIAL - Murderers

As of yesterday, 15-month-old Jeofrey Sayre was fighting for his life at the Cotabato Regional Medical Center. The boy is the youngest victim of the bombing in front of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Cotabato City the other day. Four were killed instantly; a fifth victim died later in the day. Nearly 50 others, including Sayre’s father and two siblings, were wounded when the improvised explosive device blew up as people emerged from Sunday morning Mass at the church.

The separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, whose so-called special operations group is being eyed by investigators as the culprit, denied involvement in the attack. The military said it was looking at Jemaah Islamiyah as the perpetrator, with an interpreter of the Indonesia-based terrorist cell as the person who carried out the bombing. There are only a handful of foreign JI militants operating in the Philippines. Two of them — Dulmatin and Umar Patek — are wanted for the nightclub bombings that killed 202 people in Bali, Indonesia in 2002. That handful of troublemakers can operate in the Philippines only with the assistance of local supporters.

A decade ago, JI militants trained recruits in bomb making at MILF camps. The two groups were tagged in the bombing of a Light Rail Transit coach in Manila on Dec. 30, 2000, which killed 22 people. After government forces overran MILF camps, the group, together with JI, linked up with the Abu Sayyaf and carried out more attacks, including the bombing of a SuperFerry in Manila Bay that killed more than 100.

Those ties have not been severed, even as the MILF has pursued peace with the government. These days the MILF dismisses any of its members tagged in deadly attacks as renegades. But the separatists, along with the Abu Sayyaf, are widely suspected to be providing safe haven to the handful of JI militants operating in the country. If JI is responsible for the attack near the Cotabato cathedral, the involvement of MILF members cannot be ruled out.

There is a more sinister possibility, raised by some quarters: that recent bombings in Mindanao are the handiwork of forces out to create a pretext for the declaration of emergency rule. The only way to dispel such speculation is to catch the perpetrators. The MILF can help catch the bombers, which will also be better than any denial of its involvement in the attacks.