Bomb recovered in Cotabato City

MANILA, Philippines—Authorities recovered and diffused a bomb in Cotabato City Monday night, a police official said Tuesday.

Head of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations in Western Mindanao, Director Felicisimo Khu, said that a sikad (pedicab) driver reported seeing an improvised explosive device along Gutierrez Avenue in Cotabato City at around 7 p.m.

Khu said that it was positioned “just about 100 meters from the front gate of the Office of the Regional Director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao complex.”

Joint forces of the police and military responded to the area and found a “cellphone-initiated 90 millimeter IED” which had been planted along the island of the avenue.

The IED was successfully diffused at 7:45 p.m. after water disruption, said Khu.

The DIPO-WM director said that they recovered a 90mm HE Anti-tank Model 9371-A1, 3315 Nokia cellphone, 9V battery, and electronic circuit.

The bomb was placed “very near… where an 81 millimeter (IED’s blasting cap) exploded last September 14.”

Last month, three blasts rocked Cotabato City, two of them disrupted a public forum for the candidates for officers-in-charge of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao which Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo attended.

Khu said that he has directed Cotabato City police to beef up security measures to prevent similar incidents.