Army hit for tagging ISIS in mall bombing

The Suara Bangsamoro assailed the 6th Infantry Division for immediately blaming ISIS militants as behind the bombing of the South Seas mall in Cotabato City that left two killed and 30 more injured on December 31.

 Suara Bangsamoro national chairperson Jerome Succor Aba said in a statement the army  lacked  thorough investigation, adding that the military is quick to accuse ISIS militants so it would justify military takeover of Cotabato City and other Moro areas, at a time that residents of  in Mindanao are preparing for the plebiscite that would ratify the Bangsamoro Organic Law. 

Aba said the military should refrain from issuing such statements as it would affect not only the investigation but would lead to incidents of human rights violations. 

 *A shortcut of the investigation is an injustice to the families of the victims and to the people of Cotabato City, as the real perpetrators will still roam free and the bombing incidents continue,” he said.

 “What we fear is in using the ISIS terrorist angle,  Moro communities will experience another full scale response such as what happened in Marawi City – setting up of checkpoints, arbitrary arrests and raids, and worse, another round of aerial bombardment and military operations in Moro areas suspected of ISIS presence such as the second district of Maguindanao and North Cotabato,” he said.

 He said  the whole city was already put in a lockdown since December 31, and expecting soon, there will be a series of arrest of suspected perpetrators. 

“We also fear that a military takeover could  affect the coming plebiscite for the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), to the range of limiting campaign activities for the plebiscite, or worse postponing or cancelling the plebiscite citing security reasons,” he said. 

Aba said cases of extra-judicial killings have already marred the campaign for the BOL, with the death of pro-BOL supporters such as Atty Nasser Laban, 48, of Cotabato City and Ahmad Kumayog, 43, a village treasurer in Midsayap, North Cotabato this month by still unknown perpetrators.  

“We condemn the bombing that led to the killing of innocent lives and the maiming of many others,”. 

But, he said as fellow residents of Cotabatenos, they want justice for the victim and the real perpetrators should be apprehended. 

“We do not want to be another excuse for a military take-over or a justification for President Rodrigo Duterte’s extension of Martial Law,” he said.

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