The 1972 Manila bombings were a series of "about twenty explosions which took place in various locations in Metro Manila in the months after the
Plaza Miranda bombing
The Plaza Miranda bombing ( fil, Pambobomba sa Liwasang Miranda) occurred during a political rally of the Liberal Party at Plaza Miranda, Quiapo district, Manila, the Philippines on August 21, 1971. It caused nine deaths and injured 95 others ...
and immediately preceding
Ferdinand Marcos' proclamation of Martial Law".
The first of these bombings took place on March 15, 1972, and the last took place on September 11, 1972 - twelve days before martial law was announced on September 23 of that year.
The Marcos administration officially attributed the explosions communist "urban guerillas",
and Marcos included them in the list of "inciting events" which served as rationalizations for his declaration of Martial Law.
Marcos' political opposition at the time questioned the attribution of the explosions to the communists, noting that the only suspects caught in connection to the explosions were linked to the
Philippine Constabulary
The Philippine Constabulary (PC; tl, Hukbóng Pamayapà ng Pilipinas, ''HPP''; es, Policía de Filipinas, ''PF'') was a gendarmerie-type police force of the Philippines from 1901 to 1991, and the predecessor to the Philippine National Po ...
.
Explosion incidents
The sites of the 1972 Manila bombings included the Palace Theater and Joe's Department Store on Carriedo Street, both in Manila; the offices of the
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
(PLDT), Filipinas Orient Airways, and
Philippine American Life and General Insurance Company (PhilamLife); the Cubao branch of the
Philippine Trust Company (now known as PhilTrust Bank); the Senate Publication Division and the Philippine Sugar Institute in Quezon City, and the South Vietnamese embassy.
However, only one of these incidents - the one in the Carriedo shopping mall - went beyond damage to property; one woman was killed and about 40 persons were injured.
Suspects
Communist guerillas
The Marcos regime officially attributed the explosions communist "urban guerillas",
referring to the earliest recruits of the
Communist Party of the Philippines, which had split from the
Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas
The Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930 (PKP-1930), also known as the Philippine Communist Party, is a communist party in the Philippines that was established on November 7, 1930. It uses the aforementioned appellation in order to distinguish i ...
about five years before.
Government agents
Opposition senator
Ninoy Aquino noted with suspicion that with the Carriedo incident as the only exception, "the bombings had all been timed for maximum publicity and nothing more."
He also noted that "one of the two arrested bombing suspects was a PC (Philippine Constabulary, now the Philippine National Police) sergeant who was employed at the Firearms and Explosive Section of the PC."
See also
*
Martial Law under Ferdinand Marcos
*
Proclamation 1081
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manila bombings
History of the Philippines (1965–1986)
History of Manila
False flag operations
Presidency of Ferdinand Marcos
Crime in Metro Manila
1972 murders in the Philippines