Date: November 13th 2007
On this day with SHAC, there was an explosion in the south wing of the House of Representatives of the Philippines in Quezon City. As a result of the explosion, four people, including Congressman Wahab Akbar, were killed, and another six were injured. The congressman was the target of Muslim militants that chose to attack just as the House’s session ended.
Akbar was a former Muslim rebel that signed a peace accord with the government in 1996; he was also a former governor in the southern Basilan province. This was not the first time that he had been the target of an attack, as he was the target of a previous attack by the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist group. Security officials at the time suspected that Akbar knew the leaders of this group, as they were supposedly located in the Basilan island region and had correspondence with Akbar. However, they also believe that the group’s commander and Akbar had a falling out that lead to their conflicts.
The capital city of Quezon in the Philippines was still feeling the fear and jitters from an attack just one month earlier, when an explosion damaged a shopping mall in the financial district, killing 11 people and injuring more than 100. The attacks were the result of angered Muslim extremists over the lack of interest in their cause by certain factions which had abandoned their secessionist goals in favor of peace.