March 1, 2004
By Luz Baguioro
Photo: The smouldering hull of the Superferry 14 rest on its starboard side as rescuers prepare to board the vessel in search of scores missing in Mariveles Bataan. The number of people missing after a blaze aboard a ferry in the Philippines last week has risen to 186, with only one death confirmed, according to the operator of the vessel(AFP/Joel Nito)
MANILA - Local affiliates of the Al-Qaeda terror network yesterday claimed responsibility for the explosion that triggered a fire in a ferry off the Philippine capital early on Friday.
The incident left one person dead. About 185 passengers are still missing.
A man who identified himself as Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sulaiman called the Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) in Manila on a satellite phone to claim the group had planted a bomb in one of the cabins of the Superferry 14.
'This is a revenge,' RMN programme director Benji Alejandro quoted him as saying when asked by the Associated Press.
The fire broke out in the 10,192-tonne ferry shortly before 1am on Friday as it passed Corregidor island, about two hours after leaving the capital for the central Philippines.
Several survivors who were picked up by rescue teams recounted being woken up by a loud explosion.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo dismissed the Abu Sayyaf's claim that it had planted a bomb on the Superferry 14, saying it appeared to be an afterthought by the group to use the accident for propaganda and to spread fear.
'There is nothing in the investigation that proves that this was an act of terrorists,' she said at the coast guard headquarters, where she met relatives of the missing passengers late yesterday.
The claim by the rebels was also brushed aside by the military authorities.
They said it could be a ploy by the Abu Sayyaf to debunk perceptions that it had become a spent force because of successive battlefield losses and the arrests of its top leaders.
'The rebels just want to ride on the issue because they have become a degraded force,' said southern Philippines military spokesman Renoir Pascua.
'The Abu Sayyaf is trying to hitch on the issue to gain media mileage, but it is unlikely that tragedy was terror-related,' armed forces spokesman Danilo Lucero said.
But RMN programme director Alejandro did not agree.
He said the Muslim extremist group had contacted him in October to warn that they would target passenger vessels belonging to WG & A, which owned the burned ferry, and to warn Muslims not to travel by boat.
He claims to have notified the shipping company of the rebel warning at that time.
Mr Alejandro said that an aide to the President had called him and requested then that Sulaiman's statement not be aired.
He agreed, partly out of concern that it might contain rebel codes that could be used by the extremists.
A company spokesman said 712 of the 899 passengers and crew had been accounted for, all of them picked up by fishing boats and passing vessels.
The authorities said those missing might have been trapped inside the ship because of the fast-spreading blaze.
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