Bombing in bus in Surigao del Norte hurts 2

SURIGAO CITY—A bomb tore through a bus in Claver, Surigao del Norte, before noon on Wednesday, wounding at least two people and sending jitters to a region now tense following a covert operation in Moro rebel territory that authorities said succeeded in killing international terrorist Marwan.

None of the 24 passengers of the bus, a Bachelor Tours unit with body No. 365, was hurt as they had already disembarked for lunch when the bomb went off, according to SPO2 Joel Verano, investigator at the Claver police station.

“It tore the seats at the rear portion of the bus and shattered the windows,” SPO2 Verano told Inquirer by phone.

“Lives would have been lost had the bomb exploded while the passengers were still on the bus,” the policeman said.

Earlier, Ernesto Sulapas, town administrator of Claver, said initial reports reaching officials in the town indicated that three passengers had been fatally wounded.

It was the same statement he issued media outlets in Butuan City.

“Several others who had been injured were rushed to a nearby hospital,” Sulapas said.

But Verano said only two people had been injured. They were passengers of another Bachelor bus, which was parked near the bombed bus.

He said the victims were injured by flying pieces of shattered glass.

Verano identified the injured as Evelyn Maltoromero and Maximiana Bulbera.

They suffered minor injuries and are now being treated at a hospital here, according to Verano.

Verano said the bomb was probably placed in a backpack by a still unidentified suspect when the bus left this city at 10 a.m. for Tandag City.

Investigators, he said, are still trying to determine what type of bomb was used, including the motive for the attack.

The Claver bombing aimed at the Bachelor bus was the second involving a subsidiary of the Bacolod-based Vallacar Transit Corp. in Mindanao this year.

Inconclusive cause

Just last month, a grenade also exploded at the terminal of Vallacar’s other subsidiary, Weena Bus, in Cotabato City but no one was injured.

In November last year, an improvised bomb was also recovered inside a unit of Bachelor bus in Nabunturan, Compostela Valley.

In Butuan City, the regional police of Caraga said it has yet to establish what caused the explosion.

Supt. Martin Gamba, spokesperson of the Caraga regional police force, said it was too premature to conclude that the blast was an act of terror, citing the absence of solid proof.

“We can’t conclude yet if it’s indeed a terroristic bombing,” said Gamba.

“The investigation is ongoing,” he said. Danilo Adorador III and Franklin Caliguid, Inquirer Mindanao