2 blasts rock ARMM compound
COTABATO CITY, Philippines—Two explosions shook the compound housing offices of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao here on Saturday, barely two days after a blast wounded three persons there.
Superintendent Danny Reyes, Cotabato City police director, said the first explosion occurred around 6:30 a.m. some 100 meters from the gates of the ARMM compound. Responding bomb experts, he said, later found nearby another improvised bomb fashioned from an 81-millimeter mortar shell and a grenade.
“While we were investigating at the site, another explosive went off outside the office of the Regional Ports Management Authority at the ARMM compound, leaving one person wounded, identified as 18-year-old Brando Esmael,” he said.
On Thursday night, an explosion near the Barter Trade Center, which is only a few meters away from the ARMM compound, wounded three people.
Reyes said it was still not clear who the perpetrators of the bombings were and what their motives could be.
“We are still investigating the incidents,” he said.
Acting ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman a spate of bombings here as “handiwork of cowardice.”
He blamed the bombings on “saboteurs” of the reform agenda that his administration has been trying to put in place.
“These are probably the handiwork of those who are opposed to reforms that we are implementing in the region,” Hataman said.
