Blast hits building in Makati business district

Manila: An explosion rocked Makati City at dawn on Tuesday as a shadowy group warned that the attack is the first of a series of strikes against owners of a troubled pre-need firm.

A group calling itself the "Taong Bayan at Kawal" (People and Soldier) is claiming to be behind the blast at the Great Pacific Life building in Makati City.

The group said the blast was only the start of a series of attacks against the Yuchengco family, owners of the troubled pre-need company Pacific Plans which holds office at the building.

"This is the start of the hardships that the people will inflict on you," the group said.

The group also said the incident "is a representation of our strong opposition to the lie that the government is in control of the situation in the country."

Shards of broken glass littered the façade of the Great Pacific Life building, but authorities said there had been no reports of casualties from the blast said to have been caused by a "pillbox" bomb.

Director Wilfredo Garcia, chief of police in Southern Manila said they were looking at the possibility that the blast was caused by aggrieved plan holders of the Pacific Plans Inc.

"There is a strong possibility that those responsible are the parents who have been charged in court by Pacific Plans because its owner and that of the building are one and the same," Garcia said, referring to the Yuchengcos who filed several libel cases against a group of parents.

The parents had accused Pacific Plans of reneging on their commitment to their plan holders.

Pacific Plans, a pre-need firm involved in providing education pension funds for its Filipino plan holders, has failed to release the pensions after it declared bankruptcy this year.

Like other pre-need education fund firms in the Philippines, Pacific Plans had been encountering difficulties in meeting its commitments to plan holders after the government gave schools a free hand to increase tuition fees.