A controversial Muslim congressman was the target of a powerful bomb outside the Philippine House of Representatives that killed him and two others, police said yesterday.
Wahab Akbar, one of the most influential figures in the nation's restive south, died in hospital on Tuesday night as doctors fought to save his life after the blast. A driver and a congressional aide were also killed.
"We now have evidence of a bomb ... the cellphone and pieces of nails used as shrapnel," Manila police chief Geary Barias said.
PHOTO: AP
"They could see their target," he said. "Those circumstances would show the target was Congressman Akbar."
Philippine Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said the entire House security staff had been suspended and replaced by special police commandos.
Nine people were injured in the blast, which hit the south lobby of the sprawling Batasan complex in Quezon City on Tuesday night just minutes after most congressmen had left for the evening.
Akbar was known to be a former member of the Abu Sayyaf who later turned against the group and helped the government in its anti-terrorism campaign against the militants on the southern island of Basilan, Barias said.
Akbar, who was 47, twice served as governor of Basilan, a jungle-covered southern island used by the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf as a base to launch kidnappings and bombing raids.
He had spoken in the past of his links with Abubakar Janjalani, an Afghan-trained Islamic firebrand who founded the Abu Sayyaf initially to fight for an independent state in the Philippine south.
After Janjalani was killed in a gunbattle with police in 1998, Akbar severed ties with the group and later joined the mainstream to seek elective office.
The police chief said cellphone text messages, purportedly from the Abu Sayyaf, were circulating that claimed responsibility for the bombing but added: "We are not taking that hook, line and sinker."
It was the first time that the Philippine Congress had been targeted by such an attack, and lawmakers said yesterday they wanted to get the House back to work as soon as possible.
"We want to show that everything is normal," House Speaker Jose de Venecia said. "We don't want to show we are scared of the terrorists or assassins who did this criminal and dastardly act."
In the Basilan capital of Isabela hundreds of people lined the streets, many openly weeping, as Akbar's body was borne by a pickup truck to its place of burial.
"We have lost a great leader -- a leader who united Muslims and Christians, a leader who crushed the Abu Sayyaf. Now we are apprehensive the Abu Sayyaf will come back," said Chris Puno, a spokesman for Akbar.
Meanwhile, a congressional committee dominated by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's allies, threw out an impeachment bid against her yesterday and vowed to stick to a one-year ban on other such attempts.
The House Justice Committee dismissed a complaint against Arroyo over alleged corruption and betrayal of public trust on a technicality for "lack of substance" -- the third year in a row that they have saved her from an opposition-led impeachment attempt.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS