Plaza Miranda Bombing

It caused nine deaths and injured 95 others, including many prominent Liberal Party politicians.

Plaza Miranda bombing
A still from the documentary film Batas Militar, showing Liberal Party members onstage at the Plaza Miranda, moments before the bombing.
Location	Plaza Miranda, Quiapo, Manila, Philippines
Coordinates	14°35′53″N 120°59′01″E / 14.59815°N 120.98348°E / 14.59815; 120.98348
Date	August 21, 1971 (UTC +8)
Target	Liberal Party members, political campaign
Attack type	Bombing
Weapons	Grenade
Deaths	9
Injured	95

The Liberal Party's campaign rally was held to proclaim the candidacies of eight senatorial bids as well as the candidate for the mayoralty race in Manila. As a crowd of about 4,000 gathered to hear speeches, two grenades were reportedly tossed on stage.

Among those killed instantly were a 5-year-old child and The Manila Times photographer Ben Roxas. Almost everyone on stage was injured, including incumbent congressman for Palawan and future senator Ramon V. Mitra Jr., incumbent Senator Jovito Salonga, Senator Eddie Ilarde, Senator Eva Estrada-Kalaw, Liberal Party president Gerardo Roxas (son of Manuel Roxas), Sergio Osmeña Jr. (son of former President of the Commonwealth Sergio Osmeña), Governor Felicisimo San Luis who served as Vice Governor and Governor of Laguna, attorney Martin B. Isidro who served as councilor, Vice Mayor and Congressman for the City of Manila, Ambrosio "King" Lorenzo Jr. who served as the 2nd District Councilor of Manila, and Ramon 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 of shrapnel 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.

Marcos blamed the communists and subsequently suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus.

Suspicion of responsibility for the blast fell upon incumbent President Ferdinand Marcos. Most historians continue to suspect that Marcos perpetrated the bombing as a pretext for his declaration of martial law. 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. A proven false flag attack took place with the attempted assassination of Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile in 1972. President Richard Nixon then approved Marcos' martial law move on the rationale that the country was being terrorized by Communists.

Some prominent personalities laid the blame on the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) under José María Sison. Jovito Salonga, in his autobiography, stated his belief that Sison and the CPP were responsible. New People's Army defector-turned-Armed Forces of the Philippines Brig. General Victor Corpuz (ret'd) alleged in a 2004 interview that Sison dispatched the cadre who attacked the meeting with a hand grenade. 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. In interviews by The 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." José María Sison has denied these accusations and the CPP has never claimed responsibility for the incident.

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." Sison himself, however, denied this claim - arguing that Scalice, alongside his primary source, columnist Gregg Jones used sources from military intelligence and rejectionists.

 

Assumption of emergency powers by President Marcos

Having blamed communists, Marcos used the bombing to justify his subsequent suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, an act which would later be seen as a prelude to the declaration of Martial Law more than a year later.

Radicalization of the moderate opposition

Historians note that Marcos' suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus was the event that forced many members of the moderate opposition, including figures like Edgar 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.

Bearing on the election

In a setback for Marcos' ruling Nacionalista Party, the Liberals took six of the eight contested Senate seats, as well as the Manila mayoralty with then Congressman Ramon Bagatsing defeating the incumbent Antonio Villegas for the mayorship of the country's premiere city.

On August 21, 2002, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo unveiled a commemorative marker in Plaza Miranda in honor of the nine innocent civilians killed in the blast.

• Assassination of Benigno Aquino Jr.
• Jovito Salonga
• Ramon Bagatsing
• List of terrorist incidents, 1971
• Movement of Concerned Citizens for Civil Liberties