EDITORIAL - Get them, stop them

Nearly half of the fatalities in the explosions that rocked General Santos City the other day were children. This slaughter of innocents should provide additional impetus to our law enforcers to find the bombers as quickly as possible and stop them from wreaking further havoc.

Two suspects were arrested shortly after the attacks. Both reportedly belong to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, whose leaders denied involvement in the bombings. On the other hand, a man claiming to be a member of the Abu Sayyaf said the Islamic extremist group was responsible for the attacks. He warned that more bombs would go off unless US troops pulled out of Basilan.

Some police officers, meanwhile, are not ruling out the involvement of the Indigenous People’s Federal State Army, which had claimed responsibility for planting dud bombs in Metro Manila and Mindanao only a few weeks ago. There are speculations that the group planted duds to lull authorities into complacency. Police officers have since identified the suspected leader of the IPFSA but said he was under the protection of the MILF, which is negotiating peace with the government.

Members of Islamic secessionist and terrorist groups have been known to help each other, and it’s possible that both the Abu Sayyaf and the MILF are involved in the bombings in General Santos. If the MILF is sincere in its efforts to pursue peace, and if the group is truly not responsible for the bombings, it can help the government find the perpetrators of the attacks.

It may sound paranoid, but police should also not rule out the possible involvement of the Southeast Asian affiliate of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network. An Indonesian believed to be a member of this group has pleaded guilty to possession of a ton of explosives found in General Santos. He has also been tagged by police as the mastermind of the bombings that left more than 20 people dead in Metro Manila, most of them Light Rail Transit commuters, in December 2000.

Law enforcers should find those responsible for the bombings in General Santos as quickly as possible. It is highly likely that more bombings will follow, and it’s highly likely that the attacks will spread beyond General Santos. Those terrorists, those murderers should be stopped before they can inflict worse damage.