P3.7 M set for bomb victims’ hospital bills

President Arroyo has approved the payment of P3.7 million in hospital bills incurred in the treatment of victims of the Rizal Day bombings taken to the Chinese General Hospital in Manila more than one year after the incident.

President Arroyo approved the Resolution passed by the Board of Directors of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), a copy of which was obtained by The STAR. The PCSO is under the Office of the President.

In the Resolution, the PCSO Board agreed to shoulder the P3.7 million hospital bills of the bombing victims treated at Chinese General.

The victims came from the bombing of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) coach which exploded at the LRT Blumentritt terminal, one of the five places bombed during Rizal Day, Dec. 30, 2000.

President Arroyo ordered PCSO chairman Ma. Livia Singson to pay the P3.7 million as government’s indemnification for the injured victims, many of whom were treated for third degree burns while some lost their limbs.

Up to now, government authorities have yet to pinpoint the perpetrators of the Rizal Day bombings even as several suspected Muslim rebels were tagged and arrested as behind the bomb attacks.

President Arroyo earlier disclosed government intelligence agents foiled a supposed "anniversary blast" of the Rizal Day bombing with the discovery of a C-4 explosives cache at Sangley Point in the custody of Navy Lt. (SG) Don Anthony Miraflor, who was linked to an alleged group of destabilization plotters. – Marichu Villanueva