Bomb deals deadly blow to Philippine peace process

Bomb deals deadly blow to Philippine peace process

Agencies, Manila

If the chance for peace in the Philippines needed one more nail in the coffin, it just got 13.

In many ways, the bomb that tore through Koronadal on Saturday was just another bloody episode in three decades of Moro separatist violence on the southern island of Mindanao.

But with at least 83 people dead in attacks since the start of March, the blast in the town's crowded marketplace may have killed a peace process that was already gravely wounded.

The government, with its military energies divided against half a dozen Muslim and communist guerrilla groups, faces the choice of clamping down to demonstrate its control or holding out for an elusive long-term settlement.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had drawn the line even before the bomb that killed 13 people in Koronadal by scrapping talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and offering nearly US$1 million for the capture of the group's leaders.

Authorities identified the MILF as the chief suspect behind the bombing that killed 13 people and wounded dozens of others in the city of Koronadal on Saturday.

In a visit to Koronadal, Interior Secretary Jose Lina said "the manner that it was conducted has the same pattern as ... the bombings in Davao City," -- another southern city hit by two deadly bomb blasts in March and April.

Lina said the pattern "really points to the MILF."

The MILF, the largest Muslim rebel group in the mainly Roman Catholic nation, denied involvement in Saturday's blast but is blamed for two recent bombings in Davao and other deadly attacks.

A senior government official familiar with Muslim affairs said it was right to suspend the peace process in the current climate but that true progress could only come with the alleviation of poverty and other disparities in the south.

"Many Muslims who were moderate before are becoming radical," the official told Reuters on Sunday.

"We are giving too much importance to those who are looking for violence. There is a need to refocus our attention on the law-abiding Muslim population in Mindanao and to make them feel that they belong to this republic."

Mindanao -- a region rich in corn, rice and coconuts -- is also one of the nation's poorest in terms of development projects and opportunities for the eight million Muslims who live there.

The mayor of Koronadal said the Abu Sayyaf, a kidnap gang blacklisted by Washington as a terrorist organization with links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, claimed responsibility for the attack and warned of more to come.

Regardless of who planted the bomb, the cycle of unrest does nothing to draw investors or tourists to the Philippines.

The prospects for peace were growing ever dimmer last weak when the government's top negotiator quit and Arroyo said there was no rush to replace him.

Jesus Dureza, also the presidential assistant for Mindanao and chairman of the Mindanao Economic Development Council, said he was leaving the peace process to focus on development efforts on the war-torn island.