Attacks will not affect talks with Moros: Official
Attacks will not affect talks with Moros: Official
MANILA (AFP): Bomb attacks by Moro rebels on Christian targets in the southern Philippines will "have no effect" on the Philippine government's peace negotiations with the main Moslem insurgent group, an official said yesterday.
"Those bombings have no effect on our peace talks with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF)," said chief government negotiator Manuel Yan in a DZXL radio interview.
Three bombs targeting Catholic churches injured three people on Sunday and two were found at a public market yesterday in Zamboanga city, a week after peace talks between Manila and the MNLF there ended in deadlock.
"It (bombings) has no relation to the peace talks but I know that (people) from Zamboanga city and the province of Zamboanga del Sur do not wish to be a part of the area of autonomy," under the Moslems, Yan said.
Zamboanga city and the province of Zamboanga del Sur were among the majority of the 14 provinces and nine cities whose residents are against proposals to be included in a proposed Moslem autonomous region demanded by the MNLF.
President Fidel Ramos has ordered the military and the police to "pursue" the suspects, Executive Secretary Ruben Torres told reporters. "These acts of terrorism cannot be condoned," he added.
Meanwhile, tensions eased in the largely Catholic city of Zamboanga later yesterday as residents resumed their daily activities following the bombings, radio reports said, although police said they had yet to make any arrests.
Businesses and schools remained open, although some children were told by their parents not to go to school for fear of further attacks.
A grenade was thrown at a cathedral in the city before the first Sunday mass could take place, while the second bomb, thrown at another church by motorcycle-riding men while mass was going on, injured three people. Police later recovered an unexploded grenade inside the church.
Early yesterday, police combed the city's main public market after two grenades were found and disarmed.
In a radio interview, Zamboanga city police director Superintendent Demetrio Maylas told DZXL they had the name of a Moslem as a possible suspect behind the bombings but were checking on his links with Moro rebel groups.
Police are blaming the Moslem fundamentalist group Abu Sayyaf. Observers said the attacks are attempts to create panic and divide the Catholic majority and the Moslem minority here.
Meanwhile, a powerful homemade bomb exploded in the town square of Isabela in Basilan late Sunday.
Col. Bernardito Baul, spokesman of the military's regional command said in a radio interview that there were no injuries since the plaza was deserted at that hour.