U.S. government may be behind ‘wag the dog’ scenario in Mindanao

February 15, 2004

U.S. government may be behind ‘wag the dog’ scenario in Mindanao: Bombings intended to set the stage for US military intervention

InPeace Mindanao strongly condemns the Bloody Valentine’s Day bombings that occurred in General Santos City, Davao City and Metro Manila. We denounce their perpetrators who have been hardened to the ways of terrorism and treat civilian lives as collateral damage.

Barely have we recovered from the bombings that occurred in the past and now we are besieged with these recent events. The General Santos City public market was bombed December 12 last year resulting to 15 deaths, while Davao City is to commemorate on March 4 the second year anniversary of the Davao Airport bombing.

These recent incidents have pushed the number of bombings in Mindanao occurring under the Arroyo watch since 2002 to 37. These bombings have incurred a total of 118 fatalities and 605 wounded--- all hapless civilians.

While the Arroyo government and the military are associating these bombings with the Moro rebellion in Sulu, we see that the series of explosions in Mindanao since 2002 point to a larger design--- setting the stage for the entry of US troops and justifying American military intervention in Southern Philippines.

The spates of recent bombings have further corroborated the findings of the citizen-led Independent Fact Finding Mission on the 4 March 2003 and 2 April 2003 blasts. The fact-finding mission called attention to the self-inflicted explosion suffered by Central Intelligence Agency agent Michael Terrence Meiring in a Davao City hotel on 16 May 2002. Meiring was quoted by a media source to have said that a "big explosion" would happen in Mindanao with the onset of Balikatan exercises in the country. He was spirited out of the country reportedly by a US government plane with US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents as escorts. Despite repeated calls for his extradition to face criminal charges in Philippine courts, Meiring continues to be coddled by the US government.

The previous years’ bombings in General Santos and the SOCSKSARGEN region were likewise preceded by news of the establishment of a US naval base in G’lan, Sarangani and the use of the sprawling General Santos City airport as entry point for US aircraft and war equipment. Before the bloody Valentine’s bombing, the US government announced that they have deployed 70 spies in Mindanao. Prior to the escalation of the Sulu rebellion, US military officials landed in Jolo in a barefaced display of military intervention and provocation.

Continued from U.S. government may be behind ‘wag the dog’ scenario in Mindanao…
Without any doubt, the Mindanao situation is being shaped by the United States government thru covert and overt operations. This is what is meant by building a "wag the dog" scenario to achieve US desired objectives. These objectives include maintaining military might in the Asia Pacific region, protecting US transnational mining, agri-business, and other corporate interests in Mindanao, and suppressing social movements resisting US imperialist build-up.

US troops and intelligence agents clearly pose extreme danger to the country’s peace--- by provoking, if not sowing, terror.

The Arroyo government wants us to believe that in the face of these terror attacks, we must seek US military support. This is a gullible premise.

Arroyo’s support to the US government’s "war on terror" has only made civilians targets of attack. Besides, the Arroyo government has not convincingly answered allegations by former hostages that the Philippine military has been in cahoots with Abu Sayyaf bandits in partaking of ransom money.

Worst of all, the US government is yet to answer to the world for the complicity of its covert operatives with the Al Qaeda/Abu Sayyaf when the latter was working under their payroll during the USSR-Afghanistan War in the late 1970s.

It is therefore our well-grounded apprehension that the warhawks in the government can resort to state-sponsored terrorism to lay the ground for the entry of the US military forces. (Arroyo’s most trusted men--- Generals Angelo Reyes and Victor Corpus--- were themselves pinpointed by junior military officers last year to be involved in the 2003 Davao bombings.)

As "all-out war" and US intervention become a justified course for the Arroyo government in the name of counter-terrorism, we also fear that more and more civilians, especially the Moro people, will be harmed and internally displaced. As in previous bombings, illegal arrests, detention and torture were carried out by the AFP and PNP against the Moro people whom they have hastily charged as suspects. Worse, many individuals have been forcibly abducted as a consequence.

While we call for solidarity and justice for the victims of these bombings, we forewarn against drumming up Islamophobia. That the bombings were carried out by "Islamic extremists" on Valentine’s day is clearly aimed at portraying Islam as a religion that possesses no love or compunction. We reject this new "demonology."

InPeace is calling for people’s sustained vigilance and invigorating our quest for justice to victims of all bombings.

Atty. Beverly Selim-Musni
Convenor, INPEACE MINDANAO
Mobile No. 09209235800

Moro* group condemns bombings

February 15, 2005

Moro* group condemns bombings,
But tells president "do not solve terror with terror"

The mounting death toll caused by the orchestrated bombings that hit Makati, General Santos, and Davao City, which were all claimed to have been conducted by the "Abu Sayyaf Group" or ASG, as a "valentine gift" for the president, triggered condemnation from the Muslim sector.

"To unleash such terror that victimized the innocent is deplorable and condemnable to the highest degree. Whoever conducted the bombings has proven that they are not the "vanguards of Islam" that they claim to be. Instead, they turn out to be an enemy of the people," Cosain Naga, Moro-Christian Peoples Alliance (MCPA) Spokesman said.

Forewarning against crackdowns

On the other hand, Naga warned that the Arroyo government should not use these strings of bombings to once again conduct crackdowns in Moro communities both in Metro Manila and in Mindanao.

"It is a widely known fact that the military and the police has for many a time wreaked terror in Moro communities in the guise of running after such bandit groups as the ASG and the Pentagon Gang. It is also common knowledge that these operations end up to illegal detentions, torture, and other cases of harassment mostly among innocent civilians" Naga said citing instances in the Basilan crackdown on 2001 which caused more than 100 Moro men, including women to be jailed.

He added, "we fear that with the ASG’s alleged crimes, our innocent Moro brothers and sisters will suffer the backlash (retaliation) from the military. Hence, we ask the Arroyo government along with the national police and military to exercise good judgment and prudence in facing this matter. Terror with not be solved with terror."

Peace Efforts

According to the MCPA, the Bangsamoro and the Filipino people must push the Arroyo government to pursue genuine peace efforts.

"The raging war in Sulu and these series of bombings root from causes that the government has long failed to address. Unfortunate it may be to say, we fear that as long as genuine peace efforts are not sincerely shown by the Arroyo administration, there will be no end to the cyclical pattern of war in Mindanao and to the series of retaliation attacks from bandit groups which the inutile military and police have long failed to curb," Naga said.

* Moro refers to the ethnolinguistic groups of Mindanao that have been influenced by the Muslim faith.