6 Maguindanao schools bombed

SULTAN MASTURA, Maguindanao – Unidentified gunmen launched almost simultaneous bomb attacks on six school buildings here before dawn Wednesday,  police said.

The school buildings will be used by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as voting centers in next month’s national and local elections.

Senior Inspector Wendylyn Banico, Sultan Mastura town police chief, said nobody was hurt in the incident, which he believed has something to do with the upcoming balloting. But it caused panic among residents living near the schools.

The suspects, Banico said, appeared to have used 40 millimeter rifle grenades, fired from a distance, based on shrapnel that Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) agents recovered at the blast sites.

Banico identified the bombed schools as Tapayan Central School, the Dagurungan Elementary School, the Tuka Elementary School, the Darping Elementary School, the Tareken Primary School and the Simuay Seashore Elementary School, all located southwest of Sultan Mastura.

Investigators also found bullet holes in the concrete school buildings which they believed were caused by M-16 Armalite rifles, he said.

“We are still investigating as to the real motive, we can only surmise at this time that it could be election-related,” Banico told reporters.

Sultan Mastura was not among the Maguindanao towns listed by Comelec, police and military as “areas of immediate concern” in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). 
Earlier named as possible “hot spots” in the coming polls were the towns of Sultan sa Barongis, General Salipada K. Pendatun, and Datu Salibo.

Across the region, Comelec and security officials named 13 “areas of immediate concern.”

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