“The explosion concluded my homily,” Quevedo told MindaNews in a telephone interview.

The burger house is across the lechon house from Makakua St. Photo courtesy of Amiel Cagayan/Mindanao Cross

He said at first he thought it was the burger house that was bombed.

The Archbishop says he was later told that the bomb was placed inside the lechon house. “I condemn the crime as heinous because it is against innocent people.”

The lechon house. Photo by Amiel Cagayan/Mindanao Cross

Quevedo says he thinks the target was the “lechon house, not the church, for if the church was the target, they could have placed the bomb nearer the cathedral or even inside it.”

“That would have been very easy,” he said, as there were only two security guards – one at the main gate and the other at the parking area.

For the next 15 minutes, Quevedo tried to calm down his parishioners as concerned agencies arrived at the scene of the blast, judging from the sirens they could hear from inside the cathedral.

Quevedo continued with the mass 15 minutes later but “changed the theme.”

Quezon Avenue. To the left is the cathedral, to the right is the lechon house. Photo courtesy of Amiel Cagayan/Mindanao Cross

“We offered it (the mass) for the interest of peace and non-violence,” said Quevedo, who served for two terms as President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

At communion time, a commotion occurred at the cathedral’s parking lot. One suspect was reportedly nabbed and soldiers were after another who allegedly mixed with the crowd.

The parishioners again panicked, all of them moving towards the altar and the other side of  the church away from the soldiers, the Archbishop said.

Quevedo said the soldiers entered the church but left  thereafter.

The mass ended with a “prayer for peace” but the Archbishop said he asked his flock to sing, to calm them down.

The song he chose was “the Hail Mary song but it did not succeed to calm down the people,” many of whom remained at the altar since the blast.

At the end of the mass, it took some time for the parishioners to leave the church. Someone embraced the Archbishop, crying, “Wala na si Prince, wala na si Prince” (Prince is gone, Prince is gone).

It was only much later when Quevedo realized she must have been an aunt of  Prince Allen Diaz, grandson of Quevedo’s friend, Patricio Diaz, former editor of Mindanao Cross and now columnist of MindaNews.

Quevedo later e-mailed a four-point note clarifying what he said were “erroneous reports" that had come out in the media.

“The bomb was planted in a lechon house and not in the cathedral or in cathedral grounds, where many cars were parked. To say that the attack was intended against the Cathedral and against churchgoers would be stretching the facts to the limit,” Quevedo said.


The cathedral. Photo courtesy of Amiel Cagayan/Mindanao Cross

“It took place not while people were going out after Mass, but while the Mass was going on, in fact when I was going to conclude my homily,” he said.

“Most of those injured were in the vicintiy of the lechon house, on the road, while shrapnels reached and injured some of the churchgoers who were near the cathedral door. It was there where Prince was hit,” he said.

“ Indeed, innocent civilians are the victims of such bombings. Even if it can be argued that a church or its worshippers may not be the direct target, to place a bomb near a church where people are worshipping God would be doubly heinous and must be condemned by all people of good will,” he added.

“Let us pray please for all the innocent victims, those who have died, those who are fighting for their lives in hospitals, and those who have been injured,” Quevedo wrote. (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)

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