2 people injured in Sultan Kudarat church bombing

TACURONG, Sultan Kudarat—Two churchgoers were wounded in a bomb explosion that a top Catholic Church official said was an act of terror in front of a church in the town of Esperanza, this province on Sunday.

Supt. Romeo Galgo, speaking for the regional police office, said the bomb went off around 6:40 a.m. in front of the main door of Our Lady of Hope Church in the village of Zaliao, Esperanza.

“It was a cell phone-detonated IED (improvised explosive device),” Galgo said in a phone interview. IEDs are commonly used in terror attacks.

Esperanza Mayor Helen Latog said people were leaving the church when the blast occurred.

“They were lucky that a car was parked across the main entrance to fetch someone,” she said in a phone interview.

She said the car cushioned the blast, but two of its passengers were wounded.

Police and Army bomb experts were still at the site conducting an investigation.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. But a police intelligence officer said it could be a diversionary tactic as the military continued to launch air and ground assaults against the Maute terrorist group in Lanao del Sur province.

Cardinal Orlando Quevedo, archbishop of Cotabato province, condemned the church bombing as “pure terrorism.” —EDWIN FERNANDEZ