Bomb meant for North Cotabato gov found in Kidapawan radio station

COTABATO CITY — Bomb experts defused yesterday a powerful explosive, fashioned from three 81-mm. mortar rounds, planted inside the premises of Catholic radio station dxND in Kidapawan City and timed to explode during the noon program of North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol.

Police and military intelligence sources said the bomb, rigged with an improvised battery-operated, time-delayed blasting mechanism, was apparently part of a plot to assassinate Piñol, who is known for his hard-line policy in dealing with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Station manager Carlos Bautista said the bomb was found by radio station driver Hernan Braga and reporter Willamor Magbanua at Piñol’s usual parking spot a few hours before he was due to hold his program "Pareng Gov."

Provincial police chief Superintendent Melchor Loyola said the bomb was neatly placed inside a black bag and left underneath plants at the station’s parking area.

Loyola said bomb experts thrice used bomb defusing liquids to totally destroy the bomb, which was sealed in a durable container packed with nails and jagged fragments of cast iron.

Piñol’s program is popular in the area because the governor usually makes announcements about his projects for the province and castigates the MILF and criminal syndicates operating in North Cotabato.

Since he became North Cotabato governor in 1998, Piñol has worked for the arrest of more than a hundred notorious criminals in the province, among them members of kidnap-for-ransom gangs led by disgruntled MILF commanders.

In 2000, Piñol and the equally outspoken Zamzamin Ampatuan, now executive director of the Office of Muslim Affairs (OMA), were both sentenced to death in absentia by an MILF Shari’a court in Camp Abubakar for their criticism of the rebel group’s bid to establish an Islamic state in Mindanao.

Early that year, a powerful explosion ripped through the compound here of Catholic station dxMS, a sister-outfit of dxND, where Ampatuan was hosting the "Radyo Kalimudan," a daily program where he and his co-hosts aired hard-hitting views on the disadvantages of an MILF-led Islamic state for more liberal Muslims.

The explosive used in the bombing of dxMS was made of a 60-mm. mortar round with an improvised battery-powered blasting contraption.

It went off while Ampatuan was alighting from his Mitsubishi L-300 van on his way to the station’s main building.

While Ampatuan survived the bombing unscathed, four of his bodyguards sustained shrapnel wounds in different parts of their bodies.

The incident was followed, about a year later, by the near fatal ambush by suspected MILF rebels of Ampatuan and his security escorts at the Tamontaka District here while on their way home from dxMS after their nighttime program.

The ambush resulted in the death of Ampatuan’s Army escort and the wounding of five others, including himself.