The town’s mayor Hussin Amin said the grenade exploded outside the church, but no individual or group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
He said the blast wounded Salma Pacana, 19, and Romano Sahiduan, 25, who were just passing the area when the explosion occurred.
“They were slightly wounded in the blast and we condemned this attack and those behind it. Jolo is now peaceful and people are enjoying the tranquillity and peace environment and now this,” Amin told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner by phone.
He appealed to citizens to stay calm and vigilant and report to authorities any suspicious persons in their community. “We don’t want to be disturbed by this kind of incident and this is isolated and nothing to worry,” he said.
Bishop Antonio Nercua Ablon, of the Diocese of Pagadian City, Iglesia Filipina Independiente, also condemned the blast.
“We condemn the bombing as we also pray for the victims. We join with our brethren in Jolo particularly to the Cathedral of Mount Carmel. As we do, we should not only focus on blaming Abu Sayyaf or any other groups specially that of our Moro brethren but we should also try to analyze the current political and military and economic positioning of the United States of America,” he said.
“The timing of the spate of bombings in the Philippines and the very recent past has been observed to be when the US Embassies in some parts of the world are closed as there is supposed to be threat all over but most of all against the US,” he added.
He said the timing of the bombings came at a crucial time when the U.S. and the Philippines are talking about additional number of Americans troops to be deployed in our country with both governments saying that U.S. troops can help maintain peace in the Philippines.
“They forget that it is in violation to our national sovereignty and is a violation of the Visiting Forces Agreement. We call on our people to be rational and to be truly nationalist and not allow America to trample upon us by mocking at our very face that we cannot do it that’s why they needed to be here. After all, we should suspect that this might then again be orchestrated just like the result of the MIndanao Truth Commission investigating the spate of bombings in Mindanao which was supported by the junior officers of the AFP that resulted to the Oakwood mutiny,” the bishop said.
Last year, a grenade was also lobbed at the same church, the Mount Carmel Cathedral. The grenade landed on the church’s roof where it exploded.
Previous attacks on the church were largely blamed by the authorities to the Abu Sayyaf, a small but the most notorious among rebel groups operating in the southern Philippines.
In December 2010, Abu Sayyaf rebels bombed another Catholic Church inside a police compound in Jolo town and killing at least 6 people.
Rebels scaled the church wall undetected under cover of darkness and planted the bomb and waited the next morning before detonating the powerful explosive during a mass.
Two people were also killed and 17 others wounded when Abu Sayyaf rebels also detonated a huge bomb planted outside the Mount Carmel Cathedral in July 2009. A second bomb was found near the church and had been disarmed by Filipino and US troops stationed in Jolo.
The powerful blast damaged a row of stores outside the church. (Mindanao Examiner)
20