2 bombing attempts foiled in North Cotabato

KIDAPAWAN CITY – Two successive attempts at sowing more terror in North Cotabato had been foiled on Monday and Tuesday, authorities said.

The latest incident, the fourth since January 13, took place in Pigcawayan town on Tuesday when armed men on a motorbike hastily left an improvised explosive device by the roadside upon sensing that security in the town was tight.

Police authorities all over the province had been put on high alert following two bomb explosions that toppled power lines last week.

Senior Insp. Donald Cabigas, Pigcawayan police chief, said around 6 a.m. Tuesday, two men riding tandem on a motorcycle left a bag along the highway in Barangay South Manuangan after sensing that there was a police checkpoint ahead of their path.

A purok (community) leader in the barangay (village) had noticed the men leaving something and asked them what they were doing.

Cabigas said the unidentified men told the purok leader that they just urinated and then hastily fled.

The purok leader inspected the object he had thought the men left and saw a mobile phone, electrical wires and an object resembling a mortar shell, Cabigas said.

He said the purok leader alerted the police, which later confirmed that the bag indeed contained an IED.

Cabigas said the IED could have been intended for other areas but the bombers changed their plan after seeing police officers manning a checkpoint about 200 meters away.

“Maybe due to the presence of police officers at the checkpoint, they decided to abandon the IED at the road side and it was found by the purok leader,” Cabigas said.

Bomb experts safely detonated the bomb at past 8 a.m.

In Kabacan, North Cotabato, another bomb exploded at the public market, which was earlier evacuated.

Senior Insp. Ernor Melgarejo, Kabacan police chief, said the IED, fashioned from a still undetermined type of chemicals, concrete nails and a mobile phone as remote detonator, was to be inspected by a bomb expert after it was discovered 6 p.m. when it went off.

“Nobody was hurt in the blast since the market had been evacuated after a restaurant cashier informed the market guard about a suspicious cellophane bag that a man left in one of the stalls of the dry goods section, Melgarejo said.

Quoting witnesses, Melgarejo said the unidentified man arrived at about 5 p.m. inside the dry goods and fish section of the Kabacan public market. He left a cellophane bag containing a kilo of rice, canned goods and other items.

But the cashier of the store grew suspicious and peeked at the bag, in which she saw a blinking light, Melgarejo said.

After evacuating the public market, bomb experts were preparing to disarm the bomb but then it went off, he said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the latest bombing attempts.

“Our force multipliers initiated by LGUs (local government units and barangays, as well as civilian vigilance and cooperation helped our law enforcers. Hence, no casualty reported in another IED explosion in Kabacan Public Market. It’s for the PNP (Philippine National Police) and AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) with their capabilities and intelligence to stop the proliferation of IEDs,” North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said in a statement.

On Sunday, a bomb also toppled a transmission tower of the National Grid Corp. in Pikit town and plunged many parts of North Cotabato into darkness.

Sunday’s explosion came barely a week after a blast also toppled NGCP tower 26 in the same town.