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Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar and three staff died in the attack, which also wounded two other lawmakers and six employees of the Philippine Lower House of Congress.
This is not the first time National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzalez has been linked to a series of deadly blasts in the Philippines. A few hours after the bombing of the Glorietta 2 Mall in Makati City on Oct.19, former navy officer and newly elected Senator Antonio Trillanes IV issued a statement implicating the controversial security official and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr. as probable masterminds of the shopping mall bombing. That blast killed 11 people and wounded over 100 shoppers.
On Nov.15, two days after the bombing in the south wing parking lot of the Batasan Complex, Abdul Rahman, who claims to be an agent of the National Regional Command, surfaced to tell the Filipino public that he had been recruited to work for Gonzalez. One of his tasks was to study the security details of the House of Representatives, the Glorietta 2 Mall and television stations, and to look for weak spots or ideal spots where government agents could easily plant bombs.
Prior to his work as an agent for the national security adviser, the 38-year-old Rahman was a member of the "balik-Muslim" (return to Muslim) group Rajah Sulaiman Movement, an alleged terrorist group. He was recruited by a Muslim police officer identified as Supt. Salim to the police national regional command sometime in 2004.
According to Rahman, he was recruited in 2004 to conduct "casing" activities in Metro Manila which included the Glorietta Mall in Makati City, the House of Representatives in Batasan Complex, the Centennial Building of the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court in Quezon City and several television stations in the National Capital Region.
The self-confessed agent said among the assets of the regional police command in the main capital, eight were handpicked and detailed at the office of national security adviser Gonzalez.
Rahman admitted that he had surveyed the House of Representatives several times in September 2006, although he does not know whether his intelligence report had anything to do with the recent bombing. He said in his report that the best place to plant a bomb in the House would be in the parking lot or near the podium of the Speaker of the House.
The agent said he met the security adviser three times in May, June and July 2006, and he also admitted that he was instructed to survey 30 left-leaning organizations critical of President Gloria Arroyo and the military establishment.
Rahman's story provides a strong basis to purse a national inquiry into the president's national security adviser. Previous demands for Gonzalez to respond to charges or accusations of acts of state terror and mass murder of political activists in the Philippines have been repeatedly denied by police authorities, and are still being denied by the administration and the military establishment.
The police assertion that the bomb was meant for the Muslim congressman and was planted by members of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group is not only premature, but also highly questionable and misleading. If the real target was Basilan Rep. Akbar, how come scores of people were killed and hurt in that bloody carnage inside the House of Representatives?
Decent thinking folks in the Philippines cannot help but question police director General Avelino Razon's conclusion that the Batasan blast should be attributed to the intense political war in Basilan and that Rep. Akbar was the main target of the group behind the bombing incident.
The police statement that the Batasan blast has already been solved following a raid on the hideout and the subsequent arrest of alleged perpetrators, reads like a political commentary. Skeptics have asserted that the police findings were scripted by the presidential office, edited by the National Security Adviser and finalized by the National Security Council. To be believable, the facts should be collated, analyzed and verified further by an independent and credible investigative body.
Political critics and experts have theorized that if killers or hired assassins wanted to kill Rep. Akbar, they could have chosen a better place to attack the target and avoided harming non-targets. They would not do that inside the Batasan Complex, which is heavily guarded by state security forces.
Left-leaning groups like Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and Gabriela have opined that the bombers were not after Rep. Akbar. They may have targeted activist Gabriela lawmaker Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan, who was a staunch critic of the administration. Congresswoman Ilagan's driver was one of those killed in the bomb blast, along with the Basilan representative and two other congressional staff, while the party list lawmaker was injured by pieces of shrapnel that hit different parts of her body.
These anti-administration cause-oriented groups said the probable intention of the perpetrators of the crime was to deliver a political statement that those who wish to oppose the ruling political syndicate are no longer safe even inside their own institution or political turf. The bombing could even be a message to the House speaker who is currently not on good terms with the president.
One group challenged top leaders of the House of Representatives to deputize an independent body to investigate the Batasan tragedy Tuesday night last week. It said the Filipino public cannot rely on the Philippine police and other government authorities to handle the investigation because of their highly questionable work on the Glorietta 2 bombing last month.
One proposal suggested that an independent probe should be composed of former Supreme Court justices, Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno, Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, independent experts and scientists, human rights advocates and representatives of party list groups and cause-oriented organizations.
The proposal to conduct an independent probe was borne out of the political reality that the Macapagal-Arroyo administration does not enjoy the trust of the Filipino people, as shown by the latest Pulse Asia Survey, which found that 51 percent of the population does not trust the president. A significant number if not a majority of the population believes that the president's office and the national security group are behind the latest attack on the House of Representatives.
Any parallel or independent investigation should grill the entire cast of the national security gang headed by Gonzalez and the president and compel them to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.
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(Gerry Albert Corpuz is a correspondent of Bulatlat.com, an alternative Philippine online news site. He is also the head of the information department of Pamalakaya, a national federation of small fisherfolk organizations in the Philippines. His website is www.gerryalbertcorpuz.motime.com, and he can be contacted at themanager98@yahoo.com. ©Copyright Gerry Albert Corpuz.)
