Cotabato NIA office bombed; no one hurt

MIDSAYAP, North Cotabato, Philippines – A powerful improvised explosive (IED) device exploded early Wednesday inside the compound of the Central Mindanao office of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) here, police said.

Another IED was also found in the same compound following the 5 a.m. blast, said Supt. Reynante delos Santos, this town’s police chief.

Delos Santos said no one was hurt in the bomb attack, which occurred a day before the 37th foundation day anniversary of NIA.

He said bomb experts investigating the explosion later discovered and the second IED in front of the Commission on Audit (COA) office – also inside the NIA compound in Barangay Villarica here. The second IED was safely defused.

NIA Central Mindanao director Ali Satol said he believed that the attack was meant to harm as many people as possible.

The Philippiine Daily Inquirer learned that the COA was conducting an audit of the NIA regional office.

Delos Santos said the police were also trying to determine the composition of the IEDs.

Wednesday’s bomb explosion was the second to take place inside the local NIA office.

In October 2003, a grenade attack on a mosque at the NIA compound killed then NIA regional director Makmod Mending Sr. and three others and injured over two dozen people.

That grenade attack had not been resolved to this day although there was an earlier finding that it could have been motivated by “an internal struggle” within the agency.