Basilan priest fears he was the target of bomb blast outside church

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 28): Basilan priest fears he was the target of bomb blast outside church

The priest of St. Peter Parish Church in Lamitan City in Basilan said that he might be the target of the bomb that exploded outside the said Church on Friday.

Fr. Pascual Benitez, 40, said that no one was hurt and only minor damage caused by the explosion at the church’s main gate, where the bomb was planted.

“So I was maybe the target because the bomb was placed on the gate which I used when I went out of the convent,” he said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news website.

The homemade incendiary device exploded at 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 27 right outside the parish church.

Benitez said he was watching the television inside his convent after he returned from dinner outside when the bomb exploded.

He said the damage could be seen at the gate.

Benitez has been serving as Lamitan parish priest for three years now “and it’s the first time that the church is the object of a bomb attack under my term”.

In 2010, local authorities foiled a planned bomb attack when they found and dismantled an improvised explosive device a few meters away from the church.

On the other hand, Isabela Bishop Martin Jumoad condemned the attack and urged the authorities to investigate the incident.

Investigators recovered parts of a cellphone that they believe detonated the device. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=740027