DAVAO: President Benigno Aquino linked for the first time Islamic militants and breakaway Muslim rebels yesterday to deadly bombings in the Philippines and vowed tough action against “enemies of peace”.
Fourteen people were killed in two blasts on the southern island of Mindanao on July 26 and August 5, and 76 wounded. Seven soldiers were also wounded in a roadside bomb attack in Mindanao on Wednesday.
Authorities believe the attacks were linked to security operations against the Abu Sayyaf Islamic militant group and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), Aquino said in the Mindanao city of Davao.
“There is a theory that all of these bombings are related to that, to lessen the pressure of ongoing follow-up operations against these BIFF elements,” he said on the sidelines of a business conference. He did not say outright if Abu Sayyaf and BIFF are directly behind the bombings.
But he said security forces are looking into growing links among three “threat groups” he did not identify.
“Previously they were in some sort of a loose alliance, but now they are working together to halt the peace process in Mindanao,” Aquino said.
“To those who want to challenge the authority of the state, you will feel the full brunt, depth, and might of the state’s response,” he said. “You will not get in the way of the peace and the stability that will help fulfil the potential of Mindanao”.
The leader of the BIFF had been expelled from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which later signed a preliminary peace agreement with the government last year.
Aquino hopes to sign a final peace treaty with the Milf before he leaves office in 2016 that would create an autonomous Muslim area in the south of the mainly Catholic nation, and end decades of conflict that has claimed 150,000 lives.
Three members of the BIFF, which opposes the Milf peace talks, were killed in a skirmish with the military in Mindanao last week.
Aquino said there are also on-going operations against the Abu Sayyaf, blamed for the deadliest bombings and kidnappings of foreign tourists and missionaries.
On the neighbouring southern island of Basilan yesterday, a soldier was killed and eight were wounded in an assault of an Abu Sayyaf hideout, the military said. The dawn raid turned up mortar shells, improvised explosive devices and other bomb-making materials, said Colonel Carlito Galvez, the island’s military commander.
Reuters
