Maguindanao Farmer Passes Near Military Checkpoint

A young Muslim farmer covers his face as he and his family pass Wednesday, March 10, 2010 near a military checkpoint in Shariff Aguak town in the southern Filipino province of Maguindanao where 57 people, including at least 31 journalists were brutally killed in November last year after gunmen attacked a political convoy. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)

1 killed, 3 wounded in roadside bombings in Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / May 15, 2009) – Three homemade bombs exploded on Friday and killed a pro-government militia and wounded three others in the restive province of Maguindanao in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Officials said the target of the bombings was the provincial governor Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr. He was set to visit a village in Shariff Aguak town at the time of the attacks.

The bombs, assembled from 81mm mortar shells and connected to cell phones, exploded seconds apart on a road where Ampatuan’s convoy was to pass, said Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, a spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

“The bombs were intended to Governor Ampatuan. He was the real target of the bombings, but the IEDs exploded before his convoy could pass the area,” he said.

Ponce blamed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels for the failed slay attempt on the life of Ampatuan. “Who else would do that except the rebels,” he said.

There was no statement from Ampatuan, whose brother Datu Zaldy Ampatuan is the governor of the five-province Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Their father, Datu Andal Ampatuan, is a political ally of President Gloria Arroyo, and is one of the most influential in the Muslim autonomous region to which Maguindanao belongs.

The MILF has denied any involvement in the attack, saying, it could be related to clan war of family feud and may even be connected to politics.

“The Ampatuans have many enemies. The attacks could be related to a feud or even politics. We have nothing to do with the bombings,” said Eid Kabalu, a senior MILF leader.

The elder Ampatuan also survived several assassination attempts since 2001. In 2006, he was ambushed and survived in Shariff Aguak town after a roadside bomb was detonated near the politician's convoy and authorities blamed the attack to a senior MILF leader, Zaid Pakiladatu, who denied the accusation.

But Pakiladatu's wife was also killed in an ambush in Cotabato City several weeks later after the bombing.

Ampatuan’s son Hoffer was killed during a shoot out at a party in Cotabato City 2002. His brother, Saudi Ampatuan, a town mayor, was also killed in a bomb attack in Maguindanao’s Datu Piang town also in 2002. (Mindanao Examiner)

9 people wounded in Philippines bombings

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 5, 2008) – Nine people were injured in separate bomb explosions in the restive region of Mindanao in the southern Philippines, officials said on Friday.

The attacks occurred after security forces arrested a Bangladeshi terror suspect in Shariff Kabunsuan, one of six provinces under the Muslim autonomous region.

The first explosion wounded six civilians late Thursday in downtown Isulan in Sultan Kudarat province. It was followed by another attack Friday morning wounding an army soldier and two other civilians near Bagong village in Shariff Aguak, the hometown of the region’s Muslim governor Zaldy Ampatuan.

“We suspect the MILF as behind all these bombings, who else would do that, but the MILF rebels,” Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner.

Ando was referring to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, which is fighting for self-determination in the troubled South.

The army also linked the MILF to last week’s bomb attack on a church of the Jehova’s Witness in Kabacan town in North Cotabato province, a rebel stronghold in Mindanao.

Five other bombs were planted on the same church and the Iglesia Ni Cristo in recent days had been disarmed by soldiers.

The MILF strongly denied all accusations. “The MILF has nothing to do with all these bombings. Authorities should investigate these attacks to determine who is behind it. We have repeatedly and publicly denounced terrorism, we are for peace,” Eid Kabalu, a senior MILF leader, said in a separate interview.

Authorities on Tuesday arrested Muhammad Alpariz, an alleged Bangladeshi al-Qaeda bomb expert, after soldiers and police commandos raided his hideout in the village of Tapayan in Sultan Mastura town in the Muslim autonomous province of Shariff Kabunsuan.

Soldiers and policemen recovered from Alpariz's hideout several improvised explosives assembled from mortar bombs and blasting caps, including cellular phones and an alarm clock.

It was not immediately known if Alpariz was working alone or whether he had links with the MILF. But his Filipino wife, Sulaika Rafiquellah, said her husband was not Muhammad Alpariz, but Mohammad Rafiquellah.

She said her 48-year old husband is not a terrorist and not a member of either the al-Qaeda or Jemaah Islamiya. In a television interview, Rafiquellah said her husband had been framed up by authorities. "He is a farmer, a mechanic and has a cell phone repair shop in Sultan Mastura town," she said.

The foreigner also denied the charges against him. (Mindanao Examiner)