Bombing in Philippines kills 3
MANILA, Philippines - A bomb exploded outside the House of Representatives late Tuesday, killing a former Muslim rebel-turned-congressman who had backed a U.S.-Philippine offensive against Islamic militants. A lawmaker’s driver and a legislative staffer also died.
The remotely detonated bomb collapsed the ceiling at the building’s entrance, damaged cars and injured seven people, including two congresswomen. Their injuries were not life-threatening.
“I felt the blast although I was on the other side of the building,” Rep. Teodoro Casino said.
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said the target appeared to be Rep. Wahab Akbar, a former rebel who as governor of the southern Basilan province gave his support to military operations against al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf guerrillas. Akbar died of wounds in a hospital, police said.
Puno sought to play down the possible involvement of Muslim extremists, however, saying the investigation was “pointing away from terrorist attack and more of a directed assault on a certain individual.”
“There were threats on the life of Akbar,” Puno said. “The indications are that that was the case both in terms of location of the bomb and the manner it was set off.”
While he turned on the Muslim rebels, Akbar also had many political foes, including those who ran against one of his wives, who succeeded him as Basilan governor. Political rivalries in the southern Philippines are often accompanied by bloodshed, and assassinations of politicians are common.
Akbar, 47, was a member of the Moro National Liberation Front, a Muslim rebel group that dropped its secessionist goal and signed a peace accord with the government in September 1996.
Some security officials suspected Akbar knew the leaders of Abu Sayyaf, a radical Muslim group that has its roots on Basilan island. But they said he later had a falling out with Abu Sayyaf commanders and started fighting them.
Akbar was Basilan governor when U.S. troops arrived on the island in 1992 to train Filipino soldiers battling Abu Sayyaf. Over the years, the island was gradually transformed from a militant hotbed into a showcase of counterterrorism success and humanitarian development.
The key Abu Sayyaf leaders were killed last year in a clash with Philippine marines on neighboring Jolo island. But some of the group’s fighters regrouped and returned to Basilan, where they have joined with other guerrillas to stage sporadic attacks.