Philippine police hunt two politicians over airport blast

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines, Aug 7, AFP Philippine police said Saturday they were investigating the possible involvement of two politicians in the bombing of a provincial airport in the south that left two people dead.

“We requested our partners from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and other intelligence agencies to conduct manhunt operations against the (politicians),” national police chief Jesus Verzosa told reporters.

The “human bomb” attack on Zamboanga airport may have been linked to a failed assassination attempt last year on Governor Sakur Tan of nearby Sulu province, Verzosa added.

Tan was among 24 people injured Thursday when a man carrying a backpack loaded with explosives and another man were killed in a blast outside the passenger terminal shortly after Tan had stepped off a plane.

Verzosa said police want to question three people including two of Tan’s political rivals, Temogen Tulawie, known by his nickname Cocoy, and Moamar Askali.

All three were at large after they were indicted along with two other suspects in the assassination attempt against Tan on May 13 last year in which four of the governor’s bodyguards were wounded, the police chief said.

Tulawie and Askali belong to Sulu families that have contested local elections against Tan.

Both Zamboanga and Sulu are part of the impoverished Mindanao region, where deadly Muslim and communist insurgencies have raged for decades.

The Philippines has long suffered from political violence, and many powerful politicians command “private armies” to violently enforce their will against critics and opponents.

Police said one of the men killed at the airport was carrying the bomb, but said they doubted it was a suicide attack and that he may have been duped into carrying the deadly device.

The bomb was remotely triggered, but the components were different from the roadside bomb used in the Sulu attack, Verzosa said.