ZAMBOANGA CITY—A religious leader branded as an act of darkness the Sunday bombing at the Immaculate Concepcion Metropolitan Cathedral in downtown Zamboanga City.

The Zamboanga City police, meanwhile, disclosed that Abu Sayyaf bandits remain as the primary suspect on the incident. “It is clearly an act of darkness, an evil act and we should all together stand up and do everything to stop any further activities like this,” said Archbishop Romulo Valles.

Valles condemned the incident but said it will not stop the people from practicing their faith.

A bomb fashioned out of an 81-mm mortar shell with a cellular telephone as triggering device exploded Sunday morning, damaging two vehicles parked beneath the church’s right spiral stairs.

A few minutes later, another bomb made of three 60-mm mortar shells with the same triggering device exploded on Veterans Avenue, 1.5 kilometers east of the cathedral. The Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral administrator, Fr. Totong Soliva, said the explosion did not discourage the faithful from going to church.

Soliva owns one of the two vehicles that were damaged in the bomb explosion.

“Nobody can stop anybody from going to church, practicing their faith and praying to God,” Soliva said, adding hundreds of people still attended the Mass held after the explosion.

He said the only scheduled Mass that was canceled was the one scheduled at 5 a.m., to pave the way for cleaning the debris. Masses were then held as scheduled until 8 p.m. In disclosing the Abu Sayyaf bandits as the primary suspects, Zamboanga City police officer in charge Supt. Jonathan Perez disclosed that there were threats before the bombing on Sunday.

The Task Force Zamboanga commander, Col. Darwin Guerra, said he has coordinated with the military units in Basilan, and Sulu, where the remaining Abu Sayyaf bandits are hiding, to help in the arrest of the assailants.

The bombing incidents took place a few days after the US and Australian embassies issued travel advisories warning their citizens against traveling to this city owing to terror threats.

The US Embassy issued the travel advisory on April 1 and followed by Australia on April 3.

Mayor Celso Lobregat called on the public not to be cowed by the bombings.

“Let’s get back to normalcy because if we are terrorized, if we show fear, then we will be giving the bandits credit that is not due them,” Lobregat said.

“We should not be scared, we should live normally and let us not give the terrorists a moral victory,” he added.

Ex-PA chief: We didn’t seize Jonas Burgos

FORMER Army commander Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino on Tuesday denied that he or any of his men were involved in the disappearance of Jonas Burgos, political activist and son of press freedom fighter Jose Burgos Jr., almost a year ago.

THE Ombudsman have junked the administrative and criminal complaints against the 20  policemen assigned in Calabarzon (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) filed by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in connection with the burning of a public elementary school during the May  2007 midterm election that resulted in the death of a teacher in Taysan, Batangas.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—A religious leader branded as an act of darkness the Sunday bombing at the Immaculate Concepcion Metropolitan Cathedral in downtown Zamboanga City.

THE Court of Appeals (CA) has affirmed the public-auction sale of the 18.4891-hectare “Payanig sa Pasig” property to the Pasig City government following the failure of its private owner to pay real-property tax in the amount of P389 million covering 18 years, or from 1987 to 2005.

BAGUIO CITY—A small but determined group of protesters gathered in front of the Supreme Court  (SC) mansion on Tuesday morning to press their appeal for the reversal of the SC decision on the question of executive privilege as invoked by former socioeconomic planning secretary Romulo Neri on his conversation with President Arroyo.

ARCHBISHOP Antonio Ledesma of Cagayan de Oro has accused the President’s brother in law, Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo of Negros Occidental, of blocking the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) as he charged that most obstructionists in Congress are allies of the administration.

AMBASSADOR John Danilovich, chief executive officer of the United States’ Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) reminded Philippine government leaders that the political noise on corruption in the government is not in any way affecting Manila’s stake in qualifying for the multibillion-dollar grant, saying it is better to hear news on corruption than having a silenced media in the country.