This was the second time in a little more than three months that a bomb blast hit the progressive capital of North Cotabato province after a bomb killed seven people and wounded 24 others at a bus station on Oct. 10.
No one has claimed responsibility for the bomb but most of the victims were employees of companies housed in a three-story building that was set on fire by the blast. The blast also damaged several parked cars and motorcycles.
Catholic radio station dxND reported that eight of the victims were almost trapped inside the burning building were it not for the firemen who rescued them.
North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol has offered an unspecified reward for any information leading to the arrest of the people responsible for the bombing.
Authorities identified the wounded policeman as SPO4 Herminio Belasa, 55, whose right arm was severed by the blast after he and police intern Dioscoro Renoblas, a criminology student, tried to defuse the bomb.
Also wounded in the explosion were Maposa Pahang, Armida Cristobal, Sharmaine Yares, Irene Gacasan Obrador, Gilda Membrano, Mary Grace Pacete, Felizardo Siangco, Romy Patobo, Jaime Pedtagara, Mark Angelo Anova, Mary Ann Reyes and a still unidentified male bystander.
Kidapawan City police director Superintendent Casimiro Medes said the bomb appeared to have been an 81mm mortar attached to a timer.
"It was a powerful blast. We don’t know yet who did this," Medes said.
The blast ignited a gallon of gasoline that was placed next to the bomb.
Erlinda Narin, a security guard at a nearby office, said she told employees to rush out when the bomb was found but police prevented them from leaving while Belasa tried to defuse the bomb.
"Suddenly there was a loud explosion. Shrapnel flew all around," Narin said.
Investigators said an employee of LBC Cargo, one of the companies in the gutted building, received text messages from an unidentified sender warning of the presence of a suspicious package in a blue plastic bag that was hurriedly left by three men who fled on a red motorcycle.
Piñol suspected the perpetrators may be members of one of three extortion syndicates operating in the province.
Authorities have identified the three extortion rings as Urban Lions, Suicide Bombers Team and the Dragon Group, all linked to members or former members of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Extortion was also tagged as the motive behind the Oct. 10 bombing last year of the terminal of the Weena Bus Co. that killed seven people and injured 24 others.
The explosion occurred around 3 p.m. as passengers and bystanders, including children, crowded the bus terminal in Barangay Perez in Kidapawan.
Investigators said the improvised explosive device was placed under a concrete bench near the ticketing booth. Army probers said the bomb was fashioned from incendiary chemicals mixed with nails and shredded cast iron, and rigged with a battery-operated, time-delayed blasting device.
The explosion, according to the probers, destroyed two buses parked nearby and caused damage to the concrete waiting shed where it exploded.
The management of Weena had earlier received a letter from the so-called Suicide Bombers Team or SBT, an extortion ring of the Pentagon gang, demanding a P100,000 monthly protection money or face the consequences if no money was coughed up.
The SBT had claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks in more than a dozen business establishments, including a field office of the WG&A shipping company in Central Mindanao in recent weeks.
Days after the explosion, the bombing’s alleged mastermind, Datu Musin Mamintal, a former mayoral candidate in Pikit, North Cotabato, surrendered to the military on Oct. 19.
Mamintal was tagged as the bombing’s mastermind by his alleged cohort Datu Ali Sultan, who was arrested on Oct. 16 at his hideout in Datu Ingkal Street in Kidapawan City and identified in a police line-up by two female witnesses. Charges of multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder have been filed against the suspects.
No less than President Arroyo presented Ali and two other suspects, Abdulgani Samama and Uldarico Monserati Jr., alias Jun Palma.
Police officials said Mamintal’s group was also behind the Aug. 28 bombing of another bus of the Weena Bus Company which was meant to persuade the bus company to pay "revolutionary taxes" amounting to P1.5 million and monthly payments of P500,000.
Police believe the bus company’s refusal to give in to demands was the motive for the Oct. 10 bombing of the bus company’s terminal in Kidapawan.
Sultan, Samama and Monserati are still detained in the provincial jail while Mamintal was released due to lack of evidence to link him to the bombing.