Philippine president visits Zamboanga after bomb attack

By Hader Glang

ZAMBOANGA CITY

Philippines President Benigno Aquino III arrived in the country’s south Sunday to check on the security of Zamboanga City, where a recent bomb attack left two people dead and dozens of others injured.

In a media advisory, the Philippines Information Agency said the airplane carrying the president landed at 10.30 a.m. (0230GMT) at Edwin Andrews Air Base, where he was briefed on security and the findings of an investigation into Friday’s car bomb attack.

He was accompanied by Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Army Chief of Staff General Gregorio Catapang Jr. and other officials.

Aquino then inspected the site of the attack that wrecked the Fantacy Bar nightclub and shattered the windows and doors of the nearby bus terminal and several shops.

He paid a visit to three local hospitals where the 54 injured victims are receiving treatment, as well as paying his respects at La Merced Funeral Home to the two people killed in the explosion.

The president also conducted an inspection at the Zamboanga City jail, where 57 members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf are currently detained.

Following the blast, Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar had told The Anadolu Agency that police and military were in the process of trying to determine the cause of the blast, but linked the explosion to the city presently holding Abu Sayyaf members in its jails.

"Let us take note that this Abu Sayyaf group members that are here awaiting trial did not commit their atrocities in the city of Zamboanga and the trials are not held in the city."

She called for the government to remove the 57 Abu Sayyaf from Zamboanga.

"They are not our problem and yet they are our burden," she added. "We do not want a repeat of the siege of the city." 

On Saturday, police said a woman was being held for questioning in the nearby village of Cabatangan after investigators discovered that the car used in the attack came from her residence.

A police source -- who requested anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the case -- told AA that investigators suspect the woman's husband carried out the attack.

According to the source, the target of the explosion was not the club, but the crowded bus terminal where the car was initially parked Thursday. Police, however, had ordered the driver to move the vehicle and it was instead parked outside the club across the highway.

Security has been tightened in the city, with more checkpoints being set up and Senior Supt. Angelito Casimiro, Zamboanga City Police Office director, ordering all police units to observe full alert status.

Casimiro said, "24/7 checkpoint operations are ongoing, fully using Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams and K9 units at different areas especially the vital installations including bus terminals, port and airports."

Ensuring that police were engaged in intelligence monitoring in coordination with the military, he added, "We advise the public not to panic and to report any suspicious individuals in all areas in the city to the nearest police station or post."

Zamboanga is a majority Christian city in the Philippines' Muslim south. The area has been wracked by violence for decades, and some rebel groups continue to fight for an independent Muslim autonomous region despite a peace deal signed last year between the government and the area's one-time largest rebel group -- the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

In September 2013, nearly 200 people died and over 120,000 were left homeless in Zamboanga when the Moro National Liberation Front laid siege to the city to register their opposition to the deal.

The Abu Sayyaf has carried out a violent campaign for an independent Islamic province since 1991 and is notorious for beheading kidnap victims.

The Philippine government and the U.S. have offered bounties for key members of the al-Qaeda-linked organization.