Slay attempts on Tan, Ampatuan related?

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Security officials, peace activists and religious leaders suspect that the roadside bombings that targeted Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan and former Maguindanao governor Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr. were perpetrated by only one group.

Ampatuan, father of Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Datu Zaldy, is known as the “grand old man of Maguindanao,” and Tan, a Tausog, is regarded as Sulu’s political kingpin.

Superintendent Danilo Bacas, spokesman of the ARMM police, said Chief Superintendent Bensali Jabarani, regional police director, is personally supervising the probe on the slay attempts on Tan and Ampatuan, both political allies of President Arroyo.

“We need to give our investigators in Sulu and Maguindanao enough time to wind up with their investigations into these separate incidents. We cannot blame any group as behind the atrocities without first completing the investigation process,” Bacas said.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, however, cited intelligence reports that the three improvised bombs that targeted Ampatuan’s convoy when he was on his way to his farm in Shariff Aguak town last Friday were similar to those used by renegade factions of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in recent bombings in Central Mindanao.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu, however, denied the military’s claim, saying there is no animosity between Ampatuan and the separatist group.

“We don’t mean the Ampatuans any harm. The MILF has always been the ‘whipping boy’ whenever bombings happen. The police and the military should first investigate before pointing accusing fingers to any group,” Kabalu said.

Military sources in Sulu said the bomb used in the attack against Tan was also the same type made up of 81-mm mortar projectiles with battery-operated blasting mechanisms that went off near Ampatuan’s Toyota Land Cruiser.

A worker in Ampatuan’s farm was killed while three others were wounded.