MANILA, Philippines—Two bombs tore through a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island where extremists are active, killing at least 27 people and wounding more than 70 during a Sunday Mass, officials said.
The blast came six days after a local plebiscite on the formation of a new autonomous region that came out of a peace agreement between the government and Filipino Muslims returned an overwhelming “yes” vote.Police said at least 27 people died and 77 were wounded. The dead included 20 civilians and seven soldiers, said Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares, police director for ARMM.
Photos showed debris and bodies lying on a busy street outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which has been hit by bombs in the past. Troops in armored carriers sealed off the main road leading to the church while vehicles transported the dead and wounded to the hospital. Some casualties were evacuated by air to nearby Zamboanga city.
“I have directed our troops to heighten their alert level, secure all places of worships and public places at once, and initiate pro-active security measures to thwart hostile plans,” said Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in a statement.
“We will pursue to the ends of the earth the ruthless perpetrators behind this dastardly crime until every killer is brought to justice and put behind bars. The law will give them no mercy,” the office of President Rodrigo Duterte said in Manila.
It said that “the enemies of the state boldly challenged the government’s capability to secure the safety of citizens in that region. The (Armed Forces of the Philippines) will rise to the challenge and crush these godless criminals.”
Jolo island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf extremists, also known as ISIS-Philippines Province, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization because of years of bombings, kidnappings, and beheadings. A Catholic bishop, Benjamin de Jesus, was gunned down by suspected extremists outside the cathedral in 1997.
No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack.
While most of the population in the area approved the autonomy deal, voters in Sulu province, where Jolo is located, and Isabela City in Basilan were the only areas to reject it. The province is home to a rival Islamic faction to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that’s opposed to the peace deal as well as smaller terrorist cells that not part of any peace process.
“This bomb attack was done in a place of peace and worship, and it comes at a time when we are preparing for another stage of the peace process in Mindanao,” said Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
“Let us continue working for peace in the region. Violence should not deter us from continuing our work to establish a lasting peace in our homeland,” he said.
Security officials were looking “at different threat groups and they still can’t say if this has something to do with the just concluded plebiscite,” Albayalde, the national police chief, told ABS-CBN TV network.
Aside from the small Abu Sayyaf group, other extremist groups in Sulu include a small band of young jihadis aligned with the ISIS group, which has also carried out assaults, including ransom kidnappings and beheadings.
Abu Sayyaf extremists are still holding at least five hostages—a Dutch national, two Malaysians, an Indonesian and a Filipino—in their jungle bases mostly near Sulu’s Patikul town, not far from Jolo.
Government forces have pressed on sporadic offensives to crush the extremists, including those in Jolo, a poverty-wracked island of more than 700,000 people.
