The Batasan Blast

The conspiracy theories:
1) Methane Gas
M wrote: Parang mas tumpak ang methane gas theory sa Batasan blast kaysa Glorietta2 blast. Why? With a lot of shit in Congress, methane could be generated very rapidly and in big volume.

2) Rep. Wahab Akbar
Here is Ellen Tordesilla's column last August:

We were reviewing the After Battle report on the Lamitan encounter, which involved the rescue of hostages from the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan and resulted in the death of four soldiers, and indeed there were eerie similarities: ill equipped troops, faulty information, lack of coordination, etc.

But what struck us was the part, "Capt. Guinolbay also went about soliciting the help of every soldier and policemen he could find to help solve the problem by being deployed around the compound. It is worth mentioning that during the crisis, there were a lot of policemen and soldiers at the mayor's residence that were called upon by Cpt Guinolbay but didn't lift a finger. The governor of the province was also at the mayor's residence at that time but neither of the executives came out to help or at least look at what's happening outside."

The Lamitan mayor in 2001 was Inocente Ramos and the governor was Wahab Akbar, who is now the province's representative. Akbar's first wife succeeded him as Basilan's governor. His second wife is the mayor of Isabela town. Another wife lost in her mayoralty bid in another town.

Last July 31, Akbar delivered his "I am Basilan" speech in the House of Representatives lamenting the public's association of him with the ASG. He said, "Abu Sayyaf is now nowhere to be found. And I would like to request the media to refrain from mentioning the presence of Abu Sayyaf in my province, for there is no Abu Sayyaf now in my province." What then were the 20 to 30 ASG that the military claimed were killed in last Saturday's operations?

The Magdalo, the group led by Trillanes, posted in their Web site a letter from a concerned citizen about the alarming proliferation of arms in Basilan. Part of the letter, written before May 2007 when Akbar was still governor, says: "Governor Wahab Akbar of the Province of Basilan was recently engaged in the massive illegal procurement of high-powered firearms and distributed the same to prospective assassins, known notorious killers, criminals and hoodlums, including possibly a number of the Abu Sayyaf Group in the different municipalities in Basilan, specifically the municipalities of: Tipo-Tipo, Al Barkah, Ungkaya Pukan, Sumisip, Maluso, Lantawan, Akbar, and Mohammad Ajul.

3. Robert Gomez, back as reporter for ABSCBN Zamboanga after losing to Daryl "Lex Luthor" Peach in the World Pool Championship finals last Sunday: A drunken Taiwanese man bit a Filipino man during a heated argument inside a police station in the Philippine capital, a police officer said Tuesday. The argument apparently was on which country rules the world pool: Taiwan or Philippines.

4. The Dog Curse Theory:
AFP reports:

An Indian farmer has married his dog in a bid to overcome what he believes is a curse caused by him having stoned to death two mating dogs in his rice field, press reports said. The 34-year-old farmer, identified as Selvakumar from Sivaganga district in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, fell on bad fortune 15 years ago after killing the dogs and hanging their carcasses from a tree. A few days later, his hearing and speech were impaired and he was unable to walk. Doctors were clueless, but an astrologer finally told him he was cursed by the spirits of the dogs he had killed. He could undo the curse only if he married a dog and live with it, the soothsayer said. After a long search for a 'suitable bride', Selvakumar managed to get a four-year-old mongrel bitch from a friend and had a fully-fledged Hindu wedding in front of villagers and elders on Sunday, eyewitnesses said.

Apparently, one of the dogs of GMA was hanged by the top dog of Congress. So a dog marriage has to be set now.

5. Inquirer reports after the blast: The House committee on justice on Wednesday threw out the impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Roel Pulido against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.