Three men arrested over a foiled attempt to bomb the Philippine
capital's airport were also planning to attack the Chinese embassy and
one of Manila's biggest malls, authorities said Tuesday.
The men, who were detained on Monday at the airport with an van
containing petrol bombs and firecrackers, had planned a series of
consecutive attacks, apparently to publicise their anti-China
grievances, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima told reporters.
"They claim to be defenders of the Filipino people and consider China
and (Filipino-Chinese) oligarch taipans' monopolistic business
practices and illegal mining as enemies," she said.
De Lima said the men appeared to be particularly angry at the
Philippine government's perceived "soft" stance towards China in a
long-running dispute over competing territorial claims in the South
China Sea.
De Lima said the group, which may involve more people than those
detained, had planned a series of attacks on Monday at buildings linked
to China or to the Chinese-Filipino business community.
"They also had plans yesterday to firebomb SM Mall of Asia in Pasay
city and strafing the Chinese embassy and the DMCI building," she said.
SM Mall of Asia is owned by Henry Sy, the Philippines' richest man who was born in China.
DMCI is a construction firm owned by David Consunji, another
ethnic-Chinese Filipino whom Forbes magazine lists as the country's
sixth richest man.
Nevertheless, de Lima said investigators were not convinced that the
group's real intention was to express anger against China and Chinese
interests.
"We want to know how big this group is, what is their capacity really
to create all this havoc, and what is their real agenda," de Lima said.
"Are they on their own or are there (people) behind them? We will investigate all these."
This is just comic relief to get attention... it is not a terrorist attack.
The men -- aged 43, 22 and 25 -- worked as security guards for a
textile company just outside Manila, according to investigators.
But De Lima said the leader of the group claimed to belong to a
secretive fraternity of police and military figures that had been linked
to coup attempts in the 1980s which failed to topple then-president
Corazon Aquino.
The current president is Benigno Aquino, Corazon's son, who has been
an extremely popular president during his four years in office but has
endured a few months of brutal political battles over a series of
controversies.
A senator-ally of Aquino alleged in July that retired military
officials were trying to recruit troops to destabilise the government.
The military reaffirmed its loyalty to Aquino following the senator's comments.
Despite the intense publicity and top-level concern that Monday's
arrests generated, it appeared the suspects' plans were unsophisticated
and they were not well armed, according to authorities.
The four bombs found in the van at the airport were plastic bottles
containing petrol that the attackers intended to plant at a toilet
block, Rommel Vallejo, one of the lead investigators, told reporters.
The bombs' fuses were from firecrackers that would have given the
suspects just eight seconds to flee after being lit, Vallejo said.
A small handgun was also seized from the men, but no other weapons or
ammunition had been found that would have enabled them to carry out any
other attacks, according to Vallejo.
De Lima said the three would be charged with illegal possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit terrorism.
However military chief General Gregorio Catapang ridiculed the suspects and their apparent plot.
"This is just comic relief to get attention... it is not a terrorist
attack," Catapang told reporters in a separate briefing, adding the
airport bombs were "just firecrackers".
Calls to a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Manila were unanswered.
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