| Plaza Miranda bombing | |
|---|---|
 A still from the documentary filmBatas Militar, showing Liberal Party members onstage at the Plaza Miranda, moments before the bombing. | |
| Location | 14°35′53″N120°59′01″E / 14.59815°N 120.98348°E /14.59815; 120.98348 Plaza Miranda,Quiapo, Manila,Philippines |
| Date | August 21, 1971 (UTC +8) |
| Target | Liberal Party members,political campaign |
Attack type | Bombing |
| Weapons | Grenade |
| Deaths | 9 |
| Injured | 95 |
ThePlaza Miranda bombing (Filipino:Pambobomba sa Liwasang Miranda) occurred during a political rally of theLiberal Party atPlaza Miranda,Quiapo district,Manila, thePhilippines on August 21, 1971.[1] It caused nine deaths and injured 95 others, including many prominent Liberal Party politicians.[2]
The Liberal Party's campaign rally was held to proclaim the candidacies ofeight senatorial bids as well as the candidate for the mayoralty race in Manila. After local Liberal candidates for Manila were proclaimed, Manila LP chairman Salvador Mariño, the emcee for the event, began to speak before an audience of about 4,000 when twogrenades were reportedly tossed on stage.[3][4]
Among those killed instantly were a 5-year-old child andThe Manila Times photographer Ben Roxas. Almost everyone on stage was injured, including representativesRamon V. Mitra Jr. ofPalawan andSalipada Pendatun ofCotabato, SenatorsJovito Salonga,Eva Estrada-Kalaw, andGerardo Roxas (also Liberal Party president), Judy Araneta-Roxas, former representativeEddie Ilarde ofRizal, formerCebu City mayorSergio Osmeña Jr.,Governor Felicisimo San Luis ofLaguna, Manila Councilors Martin B. Isidro and Ambrosio "King" Lorenzo Jr., and CongressmanRamon Bagatsing, the party's mayoral candidate for Manila.
Salonga was among those most seriously injured. The blast left him blind in one eye and deaf in one ear. Small pieces ofshrapnel remained lodged in his body until his death in 2016. Councilor Ambrosio "King" Lorenzo Jr. was in a coma for two weeks. He lost sight in his left eye and hearing on the same side. Ramon Bagatsing, the Liberal Party mayoralty candidate for Manila, lost his left leg and suffered a crushed right cheek bone and a shattered right arm.[5]
Marcos blamed thecommunists and subsequently suspended the privilege of thewrit of habeas corpus.[6]
During the police investigation into the bombing, Manila MayorAntonio Villegas was initially named the primary suspect of the bombing, but later evidence suggested otherwise.[7] Suspicion of responsibility for the blast fell upon incumbent PresidentFerdinand Marcos.[8] At the time, there was suspicion that Marcos perpetrated the bombing as a pretext for his declaration of martial law.[9][10] There were a series of deadly bombings in 1971, and the CIA privately stated that Marcos was responsible for at least one of them. The agency was also almost certain that none of the bombings were perpetrated by Communists. Defectors from Marcos' cabinet also contained further evidence implicating Marcos.[11][12] A provenfalse flag attack took place with the attempted assassination of Defense MinisterJuan Ponce Enrile in 1972. PresidentRichard Nixon then approved Marcos' martial law move on the rationale that the country was being terrorized by Communists.[13]
Some prominent personalities laid the blame on theCommunist Party of the Philippines (CPP) underJose Maria Sison.[14]Jovito Salonga, in his autobiography, stated his belief that Sison and the CPP were responsible.[15] RetiredArmed Forces generalVictor Corpus, a formerNew People's Army member who defected from the group in 1976, alleged in a 2004 interview that Sison dispatched the cadre who attacked the meeting with a hand grenade.[16] In the prologue of his 1989 autobiography, Corpus claimed that he was present when some leaders of the CPP discussed the bombing after it took place.[17] In interviews byThe Washington Post, unnamed former CPP officials alleged that "the (Communist) party leadership planned -- and three operatives carried out -- the attack in an attempt to provoke government repression and push the country to the brink of revolution... Sison had calculated that Marcos could be provoked into cracking down on his opponents, thereby driving thousands of political activists into the underground, the former party officials said. Recruits were urgently needed, they said, to make use of a large influx of weapons and financial aid that China had already agreed to provide."[18] José María Sison has denied these accusations[19] and the CPP has never claimed responsibility for the incident.[20]
Historian Joseph Scalice has argued that "the evidence of history now overwhelmingly suggests that the Communist Party of the Philippines, despite being allied with the Liberal Party, was responsible for this bombing, seeing it as a means of facilitating repression which they argued would hasten revolution."[21] Sison, however, continued to deny this claim, arguing that Scalice, alongside his primary source, columnistGregg Jones used sources from military intelligence and rejectionists.[22]
Having blamed communists, Marcos used the bombing to justify his subsequent suspension of thewrit of habeas corpus, an act which would later be seen as a prelude to the declaration of Martial Law more than a year later.[6]
Historians note that Marcos' suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus was the event that forced many members of the moderate opposition, including figures likeEdgar Jopson, to join the ranks of the radicals. In the aftermath of the bombing, Marcos lumped all of the opposition together and referred to them as communists, and many former moderates fled to the mountain encampments of the radical opposition to avoid being arrested by Marcos' forces. Those who became disenchanted with the excesses of the Marcos administration and wanted to join the opposition after 1971 often joined the ranks of the radicals, simply because they represented the only group vocally offering opposition to the Marcos government.[23][24]
In a setback for Marcos' rulingNacionalista Party, the Liberals took six of the eight contested Senate seats, as well as the Manila mayoralty with then CongressmanRamon Bagatsing defeating the incumbentAntonio Villegas for the mayorship of the country's premiere city.[5]
On August 21, 2002, PresidentGloria Macapagal Arroyo unveiled a commemorative marker in Plaza Miranda in honor of the nine innocent civilians killed in the blast.[25]
The local candidates happily returned to their seat and emcee Mariño started to speak again. But before he could finish the sentence, a fist-sized solid object hit the edge of the stage.