Five Filipinos die as bomb explodes outside cathedral
By Will Heaven

10 July 2009

A bomb was detonated outside a Catholic cathedral in the Philippines last Sunday as an archbishop celebrated Mass, killing five - including a 12-year-old boy - and reportedly injuring 46.

Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, who was delivering a homily at the time of the explosion, denied that the cathedral was the target of the attack. He said: "This is not about religion, the Muslims' desire for 'self-rule' or anything political."

The incident occurred outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Cotabato City in the southern Philippines.

Earlier reports suggested that the bomb had exploded as church-goers were leaving Mass, causing Pope Benedict XVI to condemn it as an "ignoble act".

Speaking to crowds gathered in St Peter's Square after the Sunday Angelus the Pontiff said: "As I pray to God for the victims of this ignoble act, I raise up my voice to condemn once again recourse to violence, which never constitutes a worthy way to solve problems."

The Filipino Army blamed the attack on a militant Islamist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has been fighting to establish a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines since the late 1970s.

Col Jonathan Ponce, a military spokesman, said rogue MILF militants were suspected of planting the bomb, accusing them of "attacking places of worship". But a MILF spokesman denied that his group had been responsible for the attack.

Mohaqher Iqbal told Reuters news agency: "Who needs a Christian-Muslim conflict? There's no religious conflict in the south. We're fighting for our right of self-determination. We're only defending our people and our communities."

Another army spokesman, Major Randolph Cabangbang, said investigators were probing whether Jemaah Islamiyah, the group responsible for the 2002 and 2005 bombings in Bali, may have been involved.