Philippine authorities strengthened security
at Manila's airport after a town mayor and three others were shot dead in an
ambush at the terminal
Ukol Talumpa, mayor of Labangan in the southern province of
Zamboanga del Sur, his wife and at least two others were shot dead by two men
on a motorcycle, dressed in police uniforms. Five others were wounded in the
December 20 attack at the arrivals area of Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
"The investigation is ongoing," Carmelo Valmoria,
chief of the National Capital Region's police office, said today by phone.
"We have increased police personnel outside the airport" and attached
officers to its security force, he said.
The attack, the third reported on Talumpa in as many years,
may raise concerns among tourists about safety in a country just starting to
recover from Typhoon Haiyan, which in November killed more than 6,000 people
and left an $8.2 billion reconstruction bill. The government is also in the
final stages of negotiating a peace accord with Muslim rebels in the south.
"President Benigno Aquino needs to step up security
measures in metro Manila because violence, regardless of whether it's
politically motivated or not, is a drag on the country's image," said
Richard Javad Heydarian, a political science lecturer at Ateneo de Manila University.
"Everybody knows that we don't have the best airport in the world. This
egregious incident shows tourists that it's also not a safe airport.'
Earlier Attacks
Aquino ordered police to conduct a full investigation and
pursue the attackers.
"The government will adopt necessary measures to ensure
the citizens' safety, especially during this holiday season,"
Communications Secretary Sonny Coloma said in a text message.
The mayor survived an ambush in November 2010, when he was
attacked by two gunmen in Manila, according to the Philippine Star,
which said police at the time cited politics, business rivalry and personal
conflict as potential motives. Last year, he and his wife were set upon by
armed men while traveling to Pagadian City, the provincial capital, according
to a report from the military.
Talumpa was the town's vice mayor when the earlier attacks
happened and was elected mayor this year under the opposition Nationalist
People's Coalition. Labangan is a town of nearly 40,000 people, located about
270 kilometres from Zamboanga City, the commercial center of the
Zamboanga peninsula.
Zamboanga Siege
Three weeks of fighting in Zamboanga City between government
forces and a Muslim separatist group in September killed at least 203 people
and delayed peace talks with a separate group of rebels. Earlier this month,
the government said it expects to sign a final accord with Muslim rebels in
January, bringing Aquino closer to his pledge of ending four decades of
conflict on resource-rich Mindanao island.
The insurgency in Mindanao has killed as many as 200,000
people and stifled development in the area. Ending one of Southeast Asia's most
entrenched conflicts could help bring investors to Mindanao and unlock mineral
deposits worth an estimated $312 billion.
Mindanao accounted for 14.4 percent of Philippine output in
2012, according to government data. It's also home to much of the country's
Muslim population, which accounts for about 5 percent of the Philippines' more
than 100 million people, according to estimates by the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency.
Ninoy Aquino International Airport had 32.1 million
passengers in 2012, 8 percent more than the year earlier, according to its
website.
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