ZAMBOANGA CITY – An improvised explosive went off outside a Catholic church in the predominantly Muslim province of Basilan, officials said on Saturday.
Officials said the bomb exploded at the gate of Saint Peter Parish Church in Lamitan City late of Friday, but police and military authorities said there were no casualties in the attack.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the radical group Abu Sayyaf has previously targeted Catholic priests in Basilan, one of five provinces under the restive Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.
Religious leaders condemned the attack on the church and security forces have tightened its watch on the area.
Local priest Father Pascual Benitez told the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines that he could be the target of the bombing. “So I was maybe the target because the bomb was placed on the gate which I used when I went out of the convent,” Benitez told CBCP.
The 40-year old priest said he was watching television in the convent when the bomb went off at around 9.30 p.m. He said the church’s main gate was damage from the attack.
Broken parts of a cell phone – believed used by the bomber to trigger explosion – had been recovered by police investigators outside the church.
In a separate statement by the Catholic media service UCAN, Basilan Bishop Martin Jumoad said he was “saddened and surprised” by the incident. “Let us not drag religion to let it appear that there is tension between Muslims and Catholics. Instead, we continue to work together for peace and harmony,” he said.
He also appealed for respect as “the only way to peace is through peaceful ways.”
Regional governor Mujiv Hataman has previously ordered an all-out war against the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan, just several nautical miles south of Zamboanga.
But the bishop said waging a full-scale military offensive against the Abu Sayyaf is not the solution. “Waging an all-out campaign against the lawless elements in Mindanao is not the solution,” he said, stressing that the use of violence to violence might even encourage more rebel recruits.
He said a solution that emphasizes force will not earn the government the trust and confidence of the rebels. “Those perpetrators or lawless elements, we can’t do anything about them, run after them… Finishing them all? I think that is not the solution because that will just add more problems. I think the government must act like a mother that will look for aid in order to win their trust and confidence to the calls of law,” he said, adding, extreme poverty from which most people in Mindanao suffer is at the root of the conflict.
“I have been in Basilan. Parang paulit-ulit na lang ang pangyarari. I think the approach should really be no longer through guns. I ask the government to really give more educational and livelihood programs to those areas, especially in Sumisip,” the bishop said.
The bishop said instead of an armed response, government officials should find ways to assure the rebels that “Mindanaoans” are not second-class citizens, and that they get educated and have the means to support themselves and their children. (Mindanao Examiner)
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