‘Attempted bombers had anti-China plot’

MANILA: 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 today.
The men, who were detained yesterday at the airport with a 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 said.
"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."
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 yesterday 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."
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."
The men – aged 43, 22 and 25 – worked as security guards for a textile company 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. – AFP