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Kenney: My heart goes out to Cotabato blast victims

By Queenie Casimiro, ABS CBN News Zamboanga | 07/06/2009 7:04 PM

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ZAMBOANGA CITY - United States Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney expressed her sympathies to the families of those killed in the bloody explosion in Cotabato City on Sunday.

In her speech in the launching of an Internet connection program in Zamboanga City, Kenney's voice wavered as she said her heart "goes out to the innocent victims of the attack."

"All this time, we have been talking about peace. I still believe that the peace process is still possible. It is even more necessary now," she said.
   
Kenney has been vocal about her support to the peace process between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. She was present in Malaysia on August 2008, the day when the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) was supposed to be signed by the two parties.
       
Kenney said US assistance to Mindanao will continue despite the latest violent incident in the south. She said such terroristic attacks are the main reasons why various sectors of the community should join hands and "look forward to the future and not remember the  grievances of our past."

The military on Sunday warned of more bombings allegedly involving the Moro Islamic Liberation Front Special Operations Group (MILF SOG) as investigations are launched on Sunday’s Cotabato City blast that killed five and injured 55 others.

Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner, Armed Forces public information office chief, said the Cotabato City blast is part of a grand plan by the MILF SOG to sow terror in Central Mindanao and divert security forces going after wanted MILF commanders Amehril Umbra Kato and Sulaiman Pangalian.

He said that the bombing in Datu Piang town last June 23, the Sultan Kudarat public market bombing last June 29 and the commercial bus explosion in North Cotabato 4 days ago are all linked.

"The elements are basically the same.. The bomb components are similar, the use of cellphone as detonator, parehong pareho," said the spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Monday meanwhile formed Task Force 5-7 to investigate the deadly explosion on Sunday.

Senior Superintendent Leonardo Espina, PNP public information office chief, said the task force will focus on trying to find out who is responsible for the bombing.

Espina said that that police have detained a certain Mr. Abourva, who he said is undergoing tactical interrogation after some eyewitnesses pointed to him as the person who planted the bomb. Another person who was earlier arrested was freed after it was proven that he was not part of the bombing, the police spokesman said.

Espina also said that National Police chief Director General Jesus Verzosa has ordered the creation of the local crisis committee in Cotabato City to be headed by Mayor Muslimin Sema. He said the crisis committee will oversee the operations, investigation and the continued military operations against possible suspects of the bombing.