The Philippine Supreme Court opened a hearing yesterday on an autonomy agreement with Muslim rebels, as tensions remained high with the discovery of a homemade bomb at a southern school.
Under tight security, the court began hearing arguments from the government and opponents of the accord, who said it was unconstitutional and would lead to the partition of the Philippines.
The court threw out a government motion to postpone the proceedings, court spokesman Midas Marquez said.
The military said yesterday it found a bomb at the back of an elementary school in M’lang Township in North Cotabato Province, where troops had earlier dislodged about 1,000 Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas from 15 predominantly Christian villages in a three-day offensive.
Mayor Lito Pinol said the bomb was made from a 60mm mortar round and a cellphone as a trigger, resembling an improvised bomb that went off prematurely in the same town on Thursday and another that was disarmed at the bus terminal in the nearby town of Kidapawan.
Regional military spokesman Major Armand Rico said the bombs could be retaliation by the rebels for the military offensive.
Neither town had been occupied, but the guerrillas are active nearby. Police said a man arrested in connection with Thursday’s explosion admitted to being a rebel, but guerrilla spokesman Eid Kabalu denied the claim.
Military chief General Alexander Yano said the security situation in the southern Mindanao region remained “volatile and fluid.”
He said the rebels could be reconstituting their forces to “launch similar atrocities in other areas” of the region.
The latest violence came at a crucial juncture in peace negotiations between the government and the 11,000-strong rebels, who have waged a decades-long rebellion for Muslim self-rule in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation’s south.
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