One dead, 12 injured as rebels bomb Manila mall

One dead, 12 injured as rebels bomb Manila mall

MANILA (Agencies): A bomb ripped through the Philippines'
largest shopping mall on Sunday, leaving at least one dead and 12
injured as the government warned the population to brace for
attacks linked to a separatist rebellion.

Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said the attack on the SM
Megamall and an earlier blast at the Glorietta mall in the Makati
financial district last Wednesday were the "consequence of
military action" against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
and the Abu Sayyaf.

Abu Sayyaf extremists are holding 21 mostly foreign hostages
in the southern island of Jolo while the 15,000-member MILF is
into a month-old offensive in the southern island of Mindanao
after suspending peace talks with President Joseph Estrada.

Police said an "improvised explosive" packed with "either
dynamite or black powder" went off around 4.15 p.m. (3.15 p.m.
Jakarta time) outside the women's toilet of a cinema on the third
floor of the Manila mall, Southeast Asia's largest.

The blast brought down part of the ceiling, while shattered
glass from the toilet and ticket booths accounted for some of the
injuries.

Police said a young man was killed and 12 others, most of them
employees of the cinema, were injured.

Police armed with automatic rifles blocked off the third
story section of the building where the cinema was located, while
shopkeepers on other floors boarded up.

The bombing was the second in the Philippine capital since the
Makati blast on Wednesday which left 13 people injured, sent the
Philippine peso and stock prices crashing to 19-month lows.

A rocket-propelled grenade was also fired on the national
police headquarters here a week ago, but there were no casualties
or major damage.

The Manila police commander, Chief Superintendent Edgardo
Aglipay, said 60 policemen were deployed at SM Megamall at the
time of the blast.

"We always believed that if we (went) against the terrorists,
the Abu Sayyaf and the MILF, one of the options was to be urban
terrorism," Mercado told reporters at the Megamall blast site.

"These terrorists are trying to bring down the will of the
government to go against kidnappers and cowardly terrorists (who)
are romping not only in Mindanao but are also bringing these
difficulties here in the cities," he said on television earlier.

"Nothing would make the terrorists happier than to see the
people in panic, and this is the reason that we have to have the
cooperation of all sectors to be able to live through this
particular difficult period of our lives."

Aglipay said his men continued to "improve security in places
of assembly but there will always be security gaps." He appealed
to the city's 10 million residents to "help us plug these gaps."

Mercado said the Estrada government would not be baited into
suspending civil liberties or imposing other emergency measures
in response to the "terrorist" attacks.

"I don't think there's a necessity for us to talk about
emergency measures. The government has sufficient powers under
the laws and under our constitution at the moment," he said.

The hostage crisis and the surge of Muslim militancy is
Estrada's biggest security challenge. He cut short his visit to
China and returned to Manila on Friday.

Estrada said he had also decided to postpone visits to France
and Britain due to begin at the end of this month.

The fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf (Father of the Sword) group,
which has held the hostages for four weeks, and the MILF are both
fighting for a separate homeland in the south of this largely
Roman Catholic country.

Government negotiators said they expected substantive talks
with the Abu Sayyaf on Monday or Tuesday to involve chief
Philippine negotiator Roberto Aventajado for the first time.

The hostages -- nine Malaysians, three Germans, two French,
two South Africans, two Finns, two Filipinos and one Lebanese --
were snatched from Sipadan island resort on April 23.