EDITORIAL - Sowing fear

It’s been two weeks since the first dud bombs were planted and found in Metro Manila and parts of Mindanao. A group calling itself the Indigenous People’s Federal State Army has since claimed responsibility for the bomb scare and has warned that more bombs have been planted. Fortunately, the bombs found so far were not meant to go off.

So the nation knows the group’s name and even its purported cause. Do the cops know who are the people behind the IPFSA? Like Abu Sayyaf terrorists before they lost their satellite phone, IPFSA members have been calling up radio stations, issuing warnings and explaining their demand for a federal state for Muslims, Christians and indigenous folk. The group’s spokesman calls himself Adrev.

The National Bureau of Investigation reportedly sees the hand of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. On the other hand, President Arroyo calls members of the group "termites" – a term she uses when describing political groups out to destabilize her administration. She has indicated that the bomb scares in Metro Manila and Mindanao are politically motivated. Have her security officials told her something that the public still doesn’t know? If they have, they better make some arrests soon, or else enlighten the public about the real nature of those bomb scares.

People are jittery because bombs have gone off in Metro Manila and Mindanao, and often the perpetrators are never caught. The arrest of an Indonesian believed to be the mastermind of the bombings that killed 22 people, mostly Light Rail Transit commuters, on Dec. 30, 2000 is good news but hardly reassuring. The suspect must have a network of cohorts in this country.

The best way to allay public fears is to catch the people behind the recent bomb scares. It’s not enough to point an accusing finger at certain groups. Even if people may not be scared by dud bombs, arrests must be made and formal charges filed against those trying to sow fear. The IPFSA appears to have achieved its aim – not to promote federalism, but to create enough of a scare to put police forces on alert for the one bomb that might not turn out to be a dud.