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CNN Sunday Morning

Explosions Rock Southern Philippine City of General Santos

Aired April 21, 2002 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More now on those explosions that rocked the southern Philippine city of General Santos. Right now, police are searching for more bombs, and for the latest we turn to CNN's Maria Ressa, who joins us by videophone from Manila. Maria.

MARIA RESSA, MANILA BUREAU CHIEF: Kyra, the death toll keeps rising. Just in the last hour, casualties right now are at 14 dead, 48 injured. According to the Philippine police, there were two explosions in General Santos city, the first the deadliest. It happened at about 3:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. We're exactly 12 hours ahead of Eastern time.

A small homemade bomb exploded, was planted outside a busy department store near City Hall. Minutes later, a second bomb, about a kilometer away in a residential district exploded. This was preceded by a series of bomb scares in the morning. All sent -- anonymous messages sent by cellular text messages, which spread fear of panic among the city, the residents of General Santos City.

Philippine police said that they had deployed additional security to try to check for additional explosives. In addition to that, they say they're also trying to maintain calm and order. Police say that one of the leads they're following is the potential link to terrorists.

In General Santos City early this year, three Filipinos were arrested with suspected links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Of this in that same raid, Philippine police found 1.2 tons of explosives, which they said were slated for targets in Southeast Asia.

The leader of that group, an Indonesian man named Fatura Manalgosi (ph) was convicted and tried in General Santos City just last week. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, you said police are searching for more bombs right now. What about increased security, Maria?

RESSA: That actually has happened already through the day, part of it as early as four days ago there were intelligence reports, according to the police, that something was going to happen. Just this morning, the anonymous messages that were sent around claimed that up to 18 explosions would happen on Sunday.

Keep in mind that all this is happening as 3,000 more U.S. troops are coming to the Philippines, 340 combat engineers in the nearby island of Basilan, where there are joint training exercises that have been ongoing since January, 2,700 are coming to central Luzon to begin a new round of exercises on Monday. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Manila Bureau Chief, Maria Ressa, thank you.

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