Militants, Moro People Offer Prayer, Candles For Victims Of Airport Bmbing

DAVAO CITY — Suara Party List and various militant groups offered prayers and candles Monday for the victims of the 2003 Davao International Airport bombing as they demand for the real perpetrators to be brought to justice.

The groups condemned the incident that not only caused the lives of at least 22 and wounded 145 others but also shattered those of whom were mistakenly blamed for the bombing, all of whom were Moro people.

“The candles and the prayers were offered both for the victims and the people wrongly accused as being behind the bombing. It’s not only the families of the victims that have suffered from the dastardly attack but also those who were immediately accused but were found innocent,” Abubakar Abalos Uy secretary general of Suara Party List group in Southern Mindanao, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

An example to this, Uy said, was the case of Montasser Sudang, a Moro from a village of Kabacan in North Cotabato who was quickly tagged as the man who carried the bomb.

Sudang, whose wife just delivered a child at that time, was in the airport on March 4, along with a number of people from his village, to welcome a relative from Egypt. Sudang was among the fatalities.

His father and other relatives, including the one who came from Egypt, were detained and investigated. Uy said the government even violated and desecrated the Moro custom when authorities refused to release his body to the family for burial.

“Until now, the death of Sudang has not been given justice like all of the other victims. While he was a victim, Sudang now remains to be the primary suspect which leaves us to believe that the incident was state-sponsored,” Uy said.

Sudang, he said, was apparently a victim of government’s unsubstantiated notion and prejudice against the Moro people.

“Until now, the truth remains that the government picked an innocent person as their suspect. The bloody incident caused a young father’s life and that of his wife and child…a bloody incident which could only trace back on who has control and the machinery to carry out such a deplorable act of terrorism,” Uy said.

He said innocent Moro people are still languishing in the detention cells while the real suspects are enjoying the luxury of freedom. “We will not stop fighting against the continued oppression of the Moro people and the injustices we all suffer from the power-starved government,” Uy said.