5 hurt in Maguindanao blast

COTABATO CITY — A powerful bomb blew up in a gasoline station in Parang, Maguindanao Thursday night, wounding five people and causing panic among Christian and Muslim residents.

No deaths were reported.

Wounded were Arnold Magbanua, Anthony Manla, Gilbert Montales. Arnold Cuenca and Julian Delfin.

They were taken to various hospitals.

Police said the homemade bomb contained incendiary chemical mixed with shredded cast iron and rigged with a time-delayed, battery-operated timing device.

An unidentified man left the bomb on the roadside in front of the gasoline station, not far from the town proper, police added.

Parang town proper is within artillery range of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) positions in the nearby towns of Matanog, Buldon and Barira, which are known gateways to the former rebel stronghold of Camp Abubakar.

Parang has become vulnerable to MILF attacks after a Marine unit guarding the town was deployed last month to the border towns of Pikit, North Cotabato and Pagalungan, Maguindanao.

Maj. Gen. Generoso Senga, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said he could not say who might be behind the blast but conceded that Parang was a known haunt of the MILF.

However, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu denied that his group was behind the blast, the fifth such explosion in Mindanao in the past two days.

Senga would not say if the attack on the gasoline station was related to the blast in a wharf Wednesday, killing 16 people, and Thursday’s explosions at three mosques, all in Davao City. – John Unson, AFP