BAYAN MUNA Rep. Satur Ocampo last week added his voice to a growing
clamor for an independent inquiry into the role of Defense Secretary
Angelo Reyes in the bombing of Davao City. In a statement last August
7, Ocampo expressed support for initiatives by a number of Mindanao
lawmakers to conduct a congressional investigation of the matter.
Calls for such investigation have been building up since the July
27 mutiny in Makati staged by 296 soldiers, including 70 officers,
belonging to the Magdalo group.
Justifying their action, the mutineers said they have had enough
of the AFP. They revealed that the bombings in Davao City last March
were orchestrated by Reyes and former AFP intelligence chief Brig.
Gen. Victor Corpus and blamed by the military hierarchy on the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). These bombings were carried out,
the mutineers said, to cause the MILF to be tagged “terrorist”
and justify requests for additional US military aid.
Navy Lt. Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV, one of the leaders of
the Magdalo group and apparently its spokesperson, told the media
last July 27 that one of the men who were with them was ordered by
Reyes and Corpus to bomb Davao City but refused to carry out the order.
At the time the Davao bombings took place, the Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP) was locked in combat with the MILF, simultaneous
with the US attacks on Iraq.
The defense secretary has however brushed aside allegations that
he had a hand in the Davao bombings. He has branded such allegations
as “silly.”
Davao Explosions
Last March 4, a bomb exploded at the Davao International Airport.
The explosion killed 19 people and wounded 100 others. Among those
killed were an American missionary, a one-year-old girl, a college
student, and a Muslim family.
On April 2, another bomb blast occurred in Davao City—this time
at the Sasa Wharf. The Sasa Wharf blast killed 19 people. Six days
later, two suspects were arrested for both bombings: Ismael Acmad
and Juvy Bagundang.
In both cases the government pointed to the MILF as the mastermind.
The MILF leadership has been vehement in its denial of any part in
the incidents, even as it would, months later, admit to having committed
“tactical blunders” in an operation in Siocon, Zamboanga
del Norte, which left several innocent civilians dead.
Not the First
The Magdalo group was not the first to allege that the AFP leadership
masterminded the Davao bombings.
As early as last April 3, Bayan Muna Rep. Crispin Beltran said that
Malacañang and the military could have had something to do
with the Davao blasts. “The bomb attacks in Davao City could
be test cases for militarists in the Macapagal-Arroyo and their accomplices
in the US armed forces in the country to justify the quick passage
and immediate implementation of the anti-terrorism bill and other
measures that will put civilian authority under military control,”
Beltran said.
Before the bombing of the Davao International Airport, explosions
had rocked other parts of Mindanao. B. Raman, a former official of
the Indian government, commented in an article published in the Asia
Times last March on the timing of the Mindanao blasts. He wrote: “The
explosions have taken place at a time when an intense debate is on
in the Philippines over the wisdom of accepting a US offer of what
has been described as purely training assistance in dealing with terrorism,
largely inspired by the Abu Sayyaf, on Jolo island of the Sulu archipelago.”
Speculations that the AFP had something to do with the Davao bombings
seem to be corroborated by the fact that Abu Sayyaf leader Hamsiraji
Sali had claimed responsibility for the blast at the Davao airport.
The AFP top brass has frequently been accused of collusion with the
Abu Sayyaf.
“Reyes, Resign!”
In her State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered a day after the
Magdalo mutiny, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced the creation
of an independent body that would investigate the Davao bombings.
But Mindanao leaders, as well as cause-oriented groups, have expressed
misgivings about this, especially since according to the president
herself, the creation of the independent body was an idea of the defense
secretary. Party-list group Bayan Muna has suggested the formation
of an investigating body to be headed by Vice President Teofisto Guingona,
Jr., and that he be given a free hand in choosing the other members
of the group.
Meanwhile, calls for the defense secretary’s resignation have
been snowballing.
“Unless Reyes resigns or is suspended, no credible and independent
investigation can go on,” said Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan)
secretary-general Teddy Casiño. “As long as Arroyo appears
to be coddling Reyes by retaining him in his position as is, it is
unlikely that people will come out to reveal what they know about
the Davao bombings and Reyes' other acts of treason as alleged by
the AFP junior officers.”
The Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao and the Promotion of Church
People’s Response have made similar calls.
Bayan has plans of staging actions to demand Reyes’s resignation.
Three AFP generals, speaking on condition of anonymity, have also
called for Reyes’s resignation. According to them, most of the
men and women in the Department of National Defense want Reyes out
of his post.
A signature campaign for the resignation of the defense secretary
has been initiated on the Internet by Bayan. (Bulatlat.com)
