Malacañang condemned on Tuesday the deadly car-bomb explosion in Basilan City that left 11 people dead and five others injured.
In a Palace briefing, Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. described the explosion as a “terrorist attack” that constitutes a “war crime.”
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the latest terrorist attack in Basilan perpetrated in violation of our laws,” Roque said in a news statement. “Authorities are now investigating the incident, even as we vow to bring the perpetrators of this brazen attack to justice,” he added.
Suicide bombing?
Eleven people, including a foreign-looking individual suspected to be a “suicide bomber,” were killed, while five others were wounded in a car- bomb explosion early Tuesday in Lamitan City, Basilan province, officials said.
Lt. Col. Montano Almodovar, the Army’s 3rd Scout Ranger Battalion commander, said over RMN Zamboanga that the explosion happened around 5:50 a.m. at the Magkawit Detachment, along the boundaries of Barangays Bulanting, Colonia and Maganda, in Lamitan City.
City Vice Mayor Roderick Furigay said the intersection of the three barangays serves as the main thoroughfare to the nearby towns of Akbar and Mohammad Ajul.
Almodovar said that, prior to the incident, the troops flagged down a white van that was traveling toward Lamitan City proper for inspection.
Citing witnesses, he said, the van suddenly exploded when the troops requested its driver to disembark from the vehicle.
The driver was a foreign-looking person and could not speak any of the local dialect, including Filipino, he said. Among the fatalities were a soldier, five militiamen and four civilians who were militia dependents.
An Army Scout Ranger junior officer, an enlisted man and three militiamen were among those injured and were airlifted to the Camp Navarro General Hospital in this city.
The explosion wrecked the van, as well as the checkpoint and a motorcycle
‘Indiscriminate’
Asked why he branded the incident as a war crime, Roque cited the “indiscriminate” nature of the attack.
“Well, it’s a fact that Basilan, of course, is an area with a noninternational armed conflict, and there is already a domestic law on International Humanitarian Law. So under IHL, you must limit your attacks pursuant to military objectives; you must limit it to military targets, and you must avoid protected individuals, including civilians,” he said.
Considering that the attack happened at the time that the martial law is still being implemented in Mindanao, Roque admitted he still does not know why the attack happened and who were those behind it.
“But what I’m saying is, illegal acts will happen whether or not we have intelligence communities. But perhaps one thing that the military and security establishment must look into, is their intelligence capability,” the Palace spokesman said.
The bombing incident happened a few days after President Duterte offered to talk peace with the Abu Sayyaf Group, and less than a week after he signed the Bangsamoro Organic Law wherein the Moro Islamic Liberation Front said it would isolate terrorists and would stop terrorism in Mindanao. With Rene Acosta and PNA