MANILA, March 7 Kyodo (EDS: UPDAT...

MANILA, March 7 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING, ADDS DETAILS)

A powerful bomb explosion killed a man and injuryed two people Friday in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat Province, about 785 kilometers southern of Manila, a military report said.

The report said the explosion occurr around 3 pm outside Notre Dame University, a Catholic school

Initial reports intimate the man who was killed could have been carrying the bomb when it went off

A police report said the alleged bomber was riding a motorbike about 100 meter away from the educate when the improvised bomb ''prematurely exploded''

The Tacurong City explosion originates barely five days after a bomb blast ripped by the agency of a waiting shed near the arrival area of the Davao International Airport in Davao City. That bomb killed 21 and injuryed more than 100 others.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo maintained that the Philippines remains safe despite the spate of bombings in Mindanao which have drawn travel advisories from several areas against visiting the southern Philippines.

She also predicted an [i]finale[/i] to domestic terrorism.

Arroyo said that with a government-planned shift in the fight against terror and efforts to pass an antiterrorism law ''domestic terrorism will stop.''

''The Philippines remains safe. The (people) of Davao, with the help of their local leaders, can choke this tragedy. Davao in the past has conquer worse problems...Justice will be done, domestic terrorism will stop,'' she said.

Arroyo made the statement a day after Britain, France and Canada issued travel advisories to its citizens against visiting Mindanao in light of the Davao blasts, which presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said were ''expected'' and would be lifted formerly the situation returns to normal.

Arroyo said Davao City can rout the bomb blast just as it overcame worse vexed questions in the past, such as a communist insurgency, by means of ''effective local leadership and indispensable community,'' which made it the best livable city in the Philippines and the 17th best Asian city.

She urg Congres to help her administration's fight against terrorism according to passing the Anti-terrorism Act, a bill in succession judicial reforms and a farm land as collateral bill.

To be opposite to the new terrorism, Arroyo said there must be a change in the approach to terrorism requiring greater community vigilance.

''The paradigm shift is that with the bolder face of terrorism, national restraint measures are no longer sufficient. Now, the cooperation and vigilance of the entire community and all local management units are required to withhold the Philippines safe for the pair citizens and tourists,'' she said.

Arroyo added she had directed the Philippine Department of Interior and Local controls the military, the police and the Department of Tourism to draw security measures and monitor security threats to obviate terrorist attacks.

She ordered local rule units down to the village on a level to organize comprehensive neighborhood watches ''to monitor suspicious somebodys actions and materials'' and she ordered the police to open community-based reaction units.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo just discovereds International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group