‘I saw everything flying’

HOSPITAL TREATMENT Some of the people wounded in the explosion receive treatment at Sultan Kudarat ProvincialHospital in Isulan. —PHOTOS BY JEOFFREY MAITEM

ISULAN, SULTAN KUDARAT—“I saw everything flying,” Francis Suerte, 26, said, describing the chaos at a used-clothing store at the time of the bomb blast that tore through a crowd at a night market in Kalawag 3 village here on Tuesday night, killing two people, including a young girl, and wounding 35 others.

“The explosion was very powerful, the ground was shaking, used clothing and everything flying, people were running in different directions,” said Suerte, who sustained shrapnel injuries on both legs.

Seconds before he was hit, he said, a militiaman saw a man put a bag under a parked motorbike, only 3 meters from where he stood.

When the militiaman called the man’s attention, the man ran away. Other militiamen gave chase, but the man jumped on a waiting motorbike driven by an accomplice and the two sped away.

Pandemonium

Just then, an explosion ripped through the place, felling everyone within 50 meters of the blast site, Isulan Mayor Marites Pallasigue said.

“Pandemonium broke loose and every one near the parked motorbike were yelling for help,” said Suerte, a resident of Sen. Ninoy Aquino town in Sultan Kudarat who considered himself lucky because his injuries were not fatal.

“I dropped and crawled my way out of the pile of used clothing,” Suerte said. “I saw a girl lying in a pool of blood right after the blast, I think she died,” he said in Filipino.

Lenie Ombrog, 52, of Barangay Kalawag, was killed outright, while Davy Shane Alayon, 7, who lived in Bagumbayan town, Sultan Kudarat, died in the hospital on Wednesday morning, said Supt. Aldrin Gonzales, speaking for the regional police.

Among the injured were Sgt. Timjar Hambali and M/Sgt. Jo Capilitan, both of the Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion, and Protestant pastor Raymund Malves, 60.

“Most of the victims are already out of the hospital,” Pallasigue said.

“Only those with serious leg injuries remain at Sultan Kudarat Provincial Hospital,” she added.

She said two of those people were in critical condition.

Malacañang condemned the attack and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“Authorities are now investigating the incident and we vow to bring the perpetrators of this brazen attack to justice. We will apply the full force of the law,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.

Martial law extension

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said extending martial law in Mindanao was an option that the government was considering after the attack in Isulan.

Mindanao has been under martial law since May 2017, when local terrorists who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) jihadi group in the Middle East seized Marawi City.

Extended by Congress after the seige to allow the military to deal with the remnants of the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups that held the city for five months, the declaration would lapse on December 31.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III said on Wednesday that the attack might be an indication that martial law was not being enforced strictly enough in Mindanao.

BLAST SITE Military and police ordnance experts look for bomb fragments at the night market in Isulan’s Barangay Kalawag 3.

Premature

Still, Sotto said it was premature to discuss whether an extension was necessary, despite the violence.

“For all we know, in a month or two, everything that happened there would be resolved already,” he said.

Vice President Leni Robredo opposed an extension, saying martial law had failed to stop terrorist attacks in Mindanao.

“What assurance do we have that an extension would prevent attacks?” Robredo said.

Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison also opposed an extension, saying the Duterte administration was just looking for a reason to justify the continued enforcement of martial law in Mindanao and attacks on the party’s armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA).

In an online interview from exile in Utrecht, the Netherlands, Sison said NPA fighters would defend themselves against attacks by government forces.

The Philippine National Police went on full alert throughout Mindanao and heightened alert in Metropolitan Manila after the bombing.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim insurgency group in Mindanao that has signed a peace agreement with the government, condemned the attack in Isulan, which it said had the signature of IS.

“If they look at the kind of signature as well as the way the attack was carried out, it was pointing toward [IS],” MILF chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said.

“We condemn it,” Iqbal said. “It’s the handiwork of bloody minded people and it served no purpose. Those who perpetrated the bombing were peace spoilers.”

The blast happened as Isulan celebrated its 61st founding anniversary and a local festival called Hamungaya.

BIFF prime suspect

No one among the local armed groups claimed responsibility for the blast, but IS did, according to the Maryland-based SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks online activities of white supremacist and jihadi organizations.

SITE said the IS East Asia Province claimed bombing Filipino soldiers in Isulan.

Chief Insp. Ronnie Dardo, spokesperson for the provincial police, could not confirm that the attack was carried out by IS, but said police had intercepted information about a possible attack by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in nearby Maguindanao province.

“We believe that the terrorist group BIFF is the primary suspect behind this atrocity,” Col. Noel Detoyato, chief of the public affairs office of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, told a news briefing at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

“They are the ones who have the strongest evil desire to initiate this kind of attacks that victimize innocent civilians and disrupt peace,” Detoyato said.

In Isulan, Dardo said two other homemade bombs were recovered and defused at the blast site.

Capt. Arvin Encinas, spokesperson for the 6th Infantry Division, also blamed the attack on the BIFF and said military operations against the group would continue.

Retaliatory attack

“These bomb attacks are part of the BIFF’s retaliation against the military for the losses they suffered at the hands of our troops. It is unfortunate that their retaliation did not spare innocent civilians,” Encinas said by phone.

He said that since the start of the year, at least 40 BIFF fighters had been killed in clashes with government troops in Maguindanao and North Cotabato provinces, a claim that could not be independently verified in the absence of actual body counts.

In June, Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, 6th Infantry Division commander, said troops dismantled a BIFF bomb-making facility in Maguindanao province.

Encinas said the BIFF had splintered into three factions, each with about 60 fighters.

The faction led by Abu Turaife has pledged allegiance to IS and is allegedly getting financial support from the jihadi group, he said.

P1-M reward

The two other factions are led by Commander Bongos and Ustadz Karialan, he said.

Abu Misry Mama, spokesperson for the IS-linked faction of the BIFF, said his group was not behind the Isulan bombing.

“We have nothing to do with it. We don’t attack civilians,” Mama said by phone.

Encinas said Tuesday’s attack in Isulan was believed to have been carried out by two fighters from the Bongos faction.

Sultan Kudarat Gov. Pax Mangudadatu offered a P1-million reward for information that would lead to the capture of the perpetrators. —WITH REPORTS FROM CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO, JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE, DJ YAP, PATHRICIA ANN V. ROXAS, DELFIN T. MALLARI, JUDY QUIROS AND BONG SARMIENTO