Unfazed by Mindanao bombings, Aquino to visit Davao City

President Benigno Aquino III

MANILA, Philippines — Unperturbed by bombings in Mindanao, President Benigno Aquino is flying to Davao City Thursday to keynote a business conference, according to Malacañang.

Investigators had begun piecing together evidence to identify the perpetrators, and the bombings in different parts of Mindanao should not stop the President from attending public functions, officials said Wednesday.

Besides, there has been no threat of attack in Davao City, but even so, the Presidential Security Group would be extra-vigilant, they said.

“He is expected to go to Davao tomorrow,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda told reporters in a Malacañang briefing. He said it should be business as usual for the Chief Executive.

Aquino, who welcomed the Navy frigate BRP Ramon Alcaraz at the Subic Bay Freeport Tuesday and spoke at the Livestock Conference at the SMX in Pasay City Wednesday, will address the 22nd Mindanao Business Conference in Davao City Thursday.

Hundreds of business leaders, investors and local officials are expected to gather at the conference, which carries the theme “Moving toward Asean integration.”

Aquino’s trip comes on the heels of Wednesday’s bomb attack in Shariff Saydona Mustapha Maguindanao town, Maguindanao that injured eight soldiers; last Wednesday’s bomb explosion in Midsayap, North Cotabato; last Monday’s car bombing in Cotabato City that killed at least eight people; and the July 26 explosion in Cagayan de Oro City that left six people dead.

Lacierda said there was no threat of attack in Davao City.

For good measure, Brigadier General Mateo Dizon, the chief of the Presidential Security Group, said he has ordered presidential security men “to take extra precautions in all presidential engagements.”

“Yes [there will be difference in the President’s security Thursday], but mostly behind the scene. We are going to be extra-vigilant,” he told reporters.

Lacierda said all four incidents were being investigated by the police. He could not give details of the outcome of the meeting between the President and the security cluster members on the bombings last Tuesday afternoon.

“As in any instance of situations like this, the President immediately gets information from the field, from the chain of command—AFP, PNP, DND—so he is updated with all these situations,” he said.

Lacierda said on Wednesday, that investigators had not found evidence to say the bombings were coordinated. He said the investigators were looking at all angles, including the possibility that these were mounted to derail peace talks with the Moro rebels.

Aquino last Tuesday ruled out that the bombing in Cotabato was linked to the global alert on al-Qaeda attacks, but said  investigators have identified the suspects.

Meanwhile, National Security Adviser Cesar Garcia denied saying on TV that the Cotabato explosion was perpetrated by the Al Qaeda.

“I said that a similar vehicle-borne IED (improvised explosive device) was detonated in 2003 in Awang Airport by a JI (Jemaah Islamiah) personality named Zulkipli Bin Hir. JI for a while acted as an Al Qaeda franchise in the Far East,” he said.

The type of explosives used and other details were still being determined by the investigators, he added.