Army troops seize roadside bomb in Maguindanao town

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Army explosives experts prevented on Monday what could have been another deadly bombing in Central Mindanao by promptly defusing a roadside bomb along a stretch of a highway in Sultan Kudarat town.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the improvised explosive device (IED) recovered by responding bomb experts was fashioned from live 60MM mortar projectiles rigged with a blasting mechanism attached to a Nokia mobile phone.

The IED, planted at one side of a secluded stretch of the Cotabato-Davao Highway in Barangay Ladia in Sultan Kudarat, was first discovered by villagers, who, in turn reported what they found to soldiers manning an Army detachment nearby.

“It was just fortunate that the people who found the bomb were so vigilant that they promptly informed authorities about the presence of an IED along the highway,” Hermoso said.

Hermoso said the disassembled IED was identical with the bombs used by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in recent roadside bombings in Maguindanao, including at least four attempts to blow up two adjoining bridges in Datu Piang town in the second district of the province.

It was the first ever attempt to pull off a roadside bombing in Sultan Kudarat, located in the first district of the province and host to Camp Darapanan, the largest enclave of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The founder of BIFF, the renegade Saudi-trained cleric Ameril Umbra Kato, started as chief of the MILF’s 105th Base Command, but was booted out in 2010 for insubordination and other offenses.