MANILA, Philippines ? He was a mere telephone technician. How can he know about bombs?

Belittling his capability to speak on the matter, Malacañang laughed off on Thursday a whistle-blower?s claim that only the military could be behind the ?bomb scare? in Metro Manila.

Undersecretary Anthony Golez said that according to military intelligence officers, whistle-blower Vidal Doble had worked as a mere telephone technician at the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Isafp).

?With that kind of job description in their institution, we find it very clumsy for this person to claim that he has knowledge of these things, particularly the making of bombs or any specifics or details on explosives?,? Golez, a deputy spokesperson of President Macapagal-Arroyo, told reporters at a briefing.

Golez added that Doble?s salary level at Isafp could not have allowed for ?the kind of information that he has been stating.?

Doble, a witness in the 2005 ?Hello Garci? election fraud scandal, said on Wednesday that the military could be behind the Sunday explosion at the Office of the Ombudsman and the planting of improvised explosive devices at the Department of Agriculture and along busy Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City.

He claimed that while he was working at Isafp, he and other military intelligence officers frequently carried out bombings themselves in order to ?focus on a scenario? that the authorities wanted to ?pull off.?

But Golez expressed the belief that Doble could be merely creating a scenario to put the Armed Forces in a bad light.

?All these things playing in the picture would make everybody wonder if this person is just playing around with words or with the integrity of the institution that has reached a total level of maturity and confidence,? Golez said.

He said he hoped Doble?s claim would not ?tarnish the gains that the Isafp or any branch of the AFP has already achieved.?

2 groups

The AFP spokesperson, Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr., said the military was keeping an eye on two groups believed responsible for the ?bomb scare.?

He described them as ?groups with political ambitions? and said these did not involve former or active members of the military.

?We cannot divulge the names of these groups now. But what we can say is that there are two main groups that are being supported by smaller groups,? Brawner told reporters at Camp Aguinaldo.

He said the groups were also most likely responsible for spreading rumors on the purported plan to cut short the term of AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Victor Ibrado, to pave the way for the Army chief, Lt. Gen. Delfin Bangit, a trusted officer of President Macapagal-Arroyo.

Ibrado assumed the top military post on May 1, more than two months ahead of the retirement of then AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Alexander Yano, who is now an ambassador.

?The bombings and the rumors being spread about the AFP are part of these groups? plan to create an image of chaos in Metro Manila and to show that the President is no longer in control,? Brawner said.

He said the planted explosives that purportedly had C4 components, a main military specification, were found by military and police bomb experts to have been improvised by amateurs.

Brawner said ?bomb scares? usually occurred in the run-up to the President?s State of the Nation Address (Sona).

?There are no destabilization plots coming from the military, but there is one coming from other sectors,? he said.

He also rebutted Doble?s claim that the government was behind the recent bombing incidents: ?It is not the job of the AFP to be planting bombs.?

No suspects

But Quezon City District Intelligence head Supt. Nestor Abalos said his office still had no suspects in connection with the June 28 bombing of the Office of the Ombudsman and the discovery the next day of the bombs in two different areas in the city.

He also said investigators also had no prior information that bombings were about to take place.

Abalos refused to comment on Doble?s statement that the government was behind the bombings.

?We have no identities of the culprits and we have not encountered that kind of information,? he said. ?We did not have prior information about it and we found out about it only after [the fact].?

Police focus

Abalos said the police?s focus at the moment was security preparations for the Sona on July 27 that would coincide with the Iglesia ni Kristo anniversary.

?The crowd on that day in the city is expected to double because of the importance of the two events,? he said.

Abalos said police were now implementing ?target-hardening? measures, like intensified police presence in areas believed to be possible targets of bombing or a bomb scare.

?Our superiors had earlier ordered intensified security of government offices and vital installations,? he said.

Abalos said Quezon City police were still on high alert.

?We have activated Oplan Manila Shield in preparation for the July 27 events,? he said.

Stop pointing fingers

Opposition Senators Francis Pangilinan and Loren Legarda chided the administration for seeming to blame the opposition for the bomb scare.

Pangilinan said Palace officials must stop pointing fingers.

?The opposition has nothing to gain by destabilizing the government, not when a national election is about to take place. Who has got more to gain by creating the atmosphere of chaos and instability?? Pangilinan said in a statement.

He called on Malacañang to take the matter seriously by putting the culprits behind bars as soon as possible.

?It appears that this government is not serious in going after these destabilizers. Are they afraid that doing so will unmask their own people as the perpetrators?? he added.

Too lazy to investigate

At a press conference, Legarda urged the authorities to stop talking and ?do police work.?

?They always blame everyone. They should not waste time speculating. They gossip a lot ? they are too lazy to do investigative work,? she said.

Legarda said the opposition was the ?most convenient? scapegoat for destabilization attempts.

She said she found it ?suspicious? that explosions were occurring at the height of political tension over the House of Representatives? Charter change moves and the President?s coming Sona.

?Is an excuse being prepared so that the expected rallies can be preempted by invoking a security threat? If this is so, then the government must prepare for resistance from protesters, including workers, students, farmers and the political opposition,? Legarda said.

?There must be no attempt to suppress freedom of speech and assembly during the Sona,? she said.

Remember Honduras

Legarda called for an inquiry into Vidal Doble?s claim, which, she said, the AFP ?cannot just brush aside as an attempt to sow discord among the ranks of the military.?

?Better let the issue out in the open than to let it simmer and then have it explode, like what happened in Honduras, which led to the military ouster of that nation?s president,? she said, adding:

?Some parallels may be drawn on this matter between the Philippines and Honduras. The two administrations had both been aiming to amend the Constitution in apparent efforts to extend their respective terms. Let the lessons of Honduras not be lost on this administration.?