BLAST VICTIM Rudy Bulfa is treated at Hilongos District Hospital for injuries after a homemade bomb exploded at the plaza in Hilongos, Leyte province, while the town was celebrating its fiesta. —VICKY ARNAIZ
Thirty-eight people were wounded in explosions in Leyte and North Cotabato provinces on Wednesday, bringing to 54 the number of victims of violence that marred the holiday season in the Philippines.
The explosions in Hilongos town in Leyte and Aleosan town in North Cotabato came four days after a grenade attack on a Catholic church in Midsayap town, also in North Cotabato, that wounded 16 people on Christmas Eve.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but President Rodrigo Duterte has blamed the explosions in Hilongos on drug syndicates involving “Moro people” fighting for turf in Eastern Visayas.
Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the explosions were under investigation. The Philippine National Police was leading the probe, said Col. Benjamin Hao, spokesperson for the Philippine Army.
Police in Hilongos have discounted terrorism, saying the explosions in Hilongos might have been carried out by remnants of crime gangs busted by lawmen earlier this year.
Thirty-two people were injured when two bombs exploded while they were watching an amateur boxing match in the plaza late Wednesday, police said.
Ten were children, aged 7 to 15 years old.
Sixteen were admitted to hospitals while another 16 went home, said Senior Insp. Jenyzen Enciso, spokesperson for the provincial police.
Police recovered an 81-millimeter mortar cartridge and a cell phone apparently used to detonate the bombs, Enciso said.
Another unexploded bomb was found, according to Mayor Albert Villahermosa.
Chief Supt. Elmer Beltejar, Eastern Visayas police director, described the attack as an “isolated case.”
He said investigators were looking at the possibility that drug dealers or currency counterfeiters were the perpetrators.
In a television interview on Thursday, Mr. Duterte said the explosions were related to a “turf war” among rival drug syndicates.
“There was an explosion in Leyte. It’s drug-related and they are having a turf war there,” he said, without elaborating.
“It’s drug-related involving Moro people also. They have already reached that area,” he added.
NPA attack ruled out
The communist New People’s Army (NPA) has a presence in Leyte, but Mr. Duterte ruled out NPA responsibility for the explosions.
“You cannot attribute it to [the NPA]. In the first place, we are having a ceasefire,” he said.
“The NPA has no record of throwing grenades at innocent people,” he added.
More than 1,000 people were watching the boxing match at the plaza in Barangay Central in Hilongos, which was celebrating a fiesta, when the first bomb, hidden near a water tank, went off at 9 p.m.
A minute later, the second bomb, hidden near the stage, exploded.
It was the first explosion that caused most of the injuries.
The second one did little damage because the bomb’s blasting cap failed, police said.
Beltejar said security was tight for the fiesta, but the attackers “got past us.”
He said leads indicated that the attack may be retaliation for the arrest of alleged drug dealer Raida Ampaso Sarip, 29, in a police operation in Marawi City, Lanao del Norte province, on Oct. 22.
Sarip is detained at the subprovincial jail in Baybay City, Leyte. Remnants of her gang are still moving around in Hilongos, according to Senior Insp. Alberto Renomeron Jr., the town’s police chief.
Renomeron said members of the gang that was behind the circulation of bogus P1,000 bills seized by policemen in October were also suspects in Wednesday’s bomb attack.
An hour after the attack, a bomb went off on the highway at Aleosan, wounding six people, the Philippine Army said on Thursday.
Col. Edgar de los Reyes, 34th Infantry Battalion commander, said the homemade bomb exploded at 10:20 p.m. at Barangay Pagangan.
The wounded were aboard a truck that was passing by when the bomb exploded, he said.
“A lamppost was catapulted from the impact of the explosion,” he said. —REPORTS FROM JOEY A. GABIETA, VICKY C. ARNAIZ, EDWIN FERNANDEZ, MARLON RAMOS, CYNTHIA D. BALANA, AP, AFP AND REUTERS/rga