Bus passenger injured in North Cotabato roadside blast

COTABATO CITY  ,Philippines – Still unidentified bombers ignited a roadside bomb in Kabacan, North Cotabato past 7 a.m. yesterday, wounding a bus passenger and sparking widespread panic among local communities.

Kabacan’s municipal police chief Supt. Joseph Semillano identified the injured bus passenger as 19-year-old Sheila Nuñezca, an agriculture student of the University of Southern Mindanao, located in the same municipality.

The victim was on board a Rural Transit Bus bearing body numbers 2950 and license plate AVS 144 bound for Tacurong City.

The bombers, using a mobile phone, set off the roadside bomb, fashioned from a live mortar round rigged with a battery-operated blasting mechanism, just as the bus was passing by.

Nuñezca, who sustained shrapnel wounds, was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Investigators said the bomb was planted along an intersection connecting North Cotabato’s adjoining Carmen and Kabacan towns, not far from a detachment of the Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion.

Semillano said they still have to determine if the bombing was perpetrated by Moro secessionist rebels or members of the Al-Khobar extortion gang.

Eight passengers of a bus owned by the same transportation firm were killed in a bomb attack by suspected extortionists in Matalam, North Cotabato in October last year.

More than a dozen buses and public terminals have been bombed in Central Mindanao by extortionists in the past two years. The attacks killed some 30 people and injured two dozens more.

The latest roadside bombing occurred a day after suspected Muslim rebels ambushed a military convoy in Lanao del Norte province that killed two soldiers and wounded four others.

Last week, 19 soldiers were also killed by Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters during an encounter in Basilan.

MILF rebels withdraw

In Zamboanga Sibugay, MILF rebels withdrew from occupying a school as military troops were deployed in Olutanga Island.

Truckloads of soldiers from the 53th Infantry Battalion and 15th Division Reconnaissance Company arrived in the area as tension remained, officials said.

The MILF rebels, estimated to be around 200 when they occupied the Samonte Elementary School in Barangay Samonte, Talusan town, regrouped into small factions.

A government militia member, who asked not to be named as he is not authorized to speak on the matter, disclosed that they have remained under alert in Olutanga island, which is adjacent to Sitio Talaib in Barangay Labatan, Payao town where the military launched intensified operations against the forces of Wanning Abdusalam, a known leader of the MILF’s 113th Base Command and tagged as responsible for the spate of kidnappings and attacks against government forces.

Around 5,000 residents of Talaib and Tambon in Barangay Labatan have been evacuated to nearby areas.

Asnawi’s followers

Meanwhile, thirteen of the gunmen that ambushed and killed five rubber farm workers and their security escort on Sunday in Sumisip, Basilan are followers of a Moro commander that led last week’s bloody attack on patrolling Army Special Forces operatives in a nearby town.

Army and police intelligence sources said the government and MILF’s joint ceasefire committee should immediately investigate Sunday’s ambush of the supposedly unarmed workers of a rubber plantation cooperative by alleged new recruits of Commander Laksaw Asnawi, who, together with his men belonging to the 114th Base Command of the MILF, killed 19 soldiers, three of them junior officers, in an attack last week.

Key members of the peace and order councils of towns in the island province of Basilan said the 14 ambushers identified with Asnawi – Bakoy and Umail, both surnamed Wakil; Botong Aliman, Kirung Astalul Tampuri, Ahmad Pahalawan Aliman, Kabut, Mastul, Hamitul and Jakarul, all surnamed Astalul; Sapwan Aliman, Arham Aliman Asnawi, Julham Adjarun and Madih Umangkat – have scattered to different barangays after the incident to evade pursuing policemen and soldiers.

The director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police, Chief Supt. Bienvenido Latag, said he has tasked the Basilan provincial police to investigate the incident and file criminal charges against the ambushers.

Surrender Asnawi

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) demanded yesterday the MILF to surrender Asnawi and also asked the group to turn over to them Abu Sayyaf commander Furuji Indama and the leader of the lawless group in the island province, Long Malat, if the two are in their custody, as well as other members of lawless groups based in Zamboanga Sibugay who have pending warrants of arrest for various cases ranging from kidnapping for ransom, robbery, multiple murder, multiple frustrated murder and illegal detention.

MILF vice chair for political affairs Ghadzali Jaafar, on the other hand, said MILF commanders have always been told to respect the provision of the ceasefire agreement.

“We are telling you now that the leadership of the MILF has been sincere all the way from day one of the negotiations until today” Jaafar said. – With Cecille Suerte-Felipe, Roel Pareno, Jaime Laude