Maguindanao mayor orders probe of grenade blast that killed minors

COTABATO CITY– The mayor of Rajah Buayan town of Maguindanao has ordered an investigation into a grenade blast that killed two minors who went out hunting for birds on Saturday.

Rajah Buayan Mayor Yacob Ampatuan also ordered the creation of a committee to come up with measures that would prevent similar accidents from happening in the future.

Two grade school children Nash Utto and Edris Guiaman died of multiple shrapnel wounds after the grenade they found exploded on Saturday, police said.

Mayor Ampatuan said the children were hunting for birds in the wetland when they found a fragmentation grenade. The children were playing with the item when it went off, he said, citing reports from the police.

The victims were immediately buried by relatives on Saturday, following Islamic rites.

Barangay Sampao has been the site of previous clashes between government forces and Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF). The grenade that the children found could have been a part of the unexploded ordnance that litter the clash site, Ampatuan said.

The mayor said measures must be put in place to prevent a similar incident from happening in the future.

He said he would coordinate with military bomb experts to help locate other unexploded ordnance which might still be littering about in the former battlefront.

Ampatuan tasked the town council and village leaders to craft measures for the safety of all, especially children, who regularly wandered into Maguindanao’s vast wetlands.