Blast rocks Basilan church

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – An improvised explosive device (IED) planted near a Catholic church in Lamitan City, Basilan exploded Friday night. No one was reported hurt or killed, police said yesterday.

The blast, which occurred at around 9 p.m., damaged the gate of the St. Peter church on Quezon Boulevard in Barangay Maganda, said Senior Inspector Gean Gallardo, Lamitan police chief.

Members of the Philippine Army’s explosives ordnance disposal team investigated the incident. They have yet to determine the type of bomb used and the motive for the attack.

Parts of a mobile phone, believed used to detonate the IED, were recovered at the scene, police said.

Lamitan parish priest Fr. Pascual Benitez expressed belief that he might have been the target of the attack, according to a report from the CBCPNews, the official news service provider of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

Benitez said he had just returned from having  dinner outside when the bomb exploded.

“I was maybe the target because the bomb was placed at the gate, where I passed through when I went out of the convent,” he said.

Benitez has been serving the parish for three years now. He said it was the first time that such an incident occurred in the church since he took over as parish priest.

Basilan Bishop Martin Jumoad condemned the incident, describing it as a “work of evil people.”

Jumoad refused to link the incident with the refusal of some residents to include the cities of Lamitan and Isabela in the proposed Bangsamoro region. – With Evelyn Macairan