Man killed by rifle grenade fired into Cotabato City restaurant

COTABATO CITY—A restaurant manager was killed and four others wounded when a rifle grenade fired from a nearby location landed in the middle of his establishment here on Tuesday night, the eve of the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, police said.

Reynaldo Pascua, manager of Café Florencio, expired hours after he and four others were rushed to the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center.

Superintendent Rolen Balquin, Cotabato police director, said two explosions rocked the city at 8:45 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.  The perpetrators used grenade launchers but it was not certain if they were the same people.

The first blast occurred on Rufu Mañara Street in Rosary Heights when a 40-millimeter grenade landed by the roadside.  No one was hurt in the first explosion.

About 30 minutes later, another 40-mm grenade exploded in the middle of Café Florencio on Sinsuat Avenue, Cotabato City. The missile landed on the stage, where a band was performing, and shrapnel from the explosive hit Pascua, an off-duty soldier named Cornelio Inocentes, Jr., a man identified only as James, waiter Bryan Fernando, and customers Aileen Coquia and Lynnete Guerra.

Balquin said investigators were looking for four persons who had dined at the restaurant and left hurriedly after an altercation. The explosion occurred less than a minute later.

Tuesday night’s grenade attacks occurred a day after another 40-mm rifle grenade went off at the back of a Jollibee restaurant on Sinsuat Avenue. Nobody was hurt in that incident.

Balquin said the explosions had nothing to do with the start of Ramadan.  “We have no evidence the incident has anything to do with the fasting month,” he told reporters.

The grenade attacks also came a day after suspected members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters attempted to blow up a bridge in  Datu Piang, Maguindanao. The bridge sustained cracks but remained passable, the authorities said.

Balquin could not say if the attacks were related to recent fighting between government forces and BIFF guerrillas in Maguindanao in which at least six soldiers and 18 BIFF fighters were reported to have been killed.

The city remained on heightened alert, Balquin said.