Police eye personal grudge in North Cotabato blast

MANILA, Philippines—Police are eyeing personal grudge as the motive of the suspect behind the explosion that killed one and wounded 22 others at a carnival in a North Cotabato town Monday night, a police official said Tuesday.

Director Felicisimo Khu, chief of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations in Western Mindanao said that authorities believed that the suspect’s motive was personal grudge and that the suspect may have been drunk when he lobbed the grenade that night.

Senior Superintendent Cornelio Salinas, North Cotabato police chief, said the motive of the suspect was “rido”.

He said a fragmentation hand grenade was thrown on the roof of a certain Lolita Kalimpo’s home in Purok 10A, Poblacion village, Carmen town at around 9:40 p.m., killing a certain Joseph Tomelden.

The blast wounded 22 others who were immediately rushed by combined forces of the police and military to a nearby hospital, said Salinas.

Salinas said that an investigation on the incident was underway.

Khu added that police and military forces have intensified security measures at the carnival which was part of Carmen town’s fiesta celebration.