Rebs torch Leyte van; 14 hurt in Kidapawan bus blast

Suspected communist guerrillas torched a passenger van in Villaba, Leyte last Saturday, worrying businessmen in the fourth-class town that criminal elements intending to extort money from them might take a cue from the incident.

In North Cotabato, meanwhile, Gov. Emmanuel Piñol offered a reward for information on those behind the bombing of an airconditioned bus of Wenna Bus Company the other day, resulting in injuries to at least 14 people.

Eighteen-year-old Ryan Elorde, who was driving his father’s passenger van, quoted the four rebel-arsonists as saying, "We were dismayed by your parents. This is only a sample."

One of the rebels, he said, boarded the van and at gunpoint, directed him to proceed to an abandoned office of the National Irrigation Administration in Barangay Hibulangan, Villaba town.

Upon reaching the place, he and his three female passengers were told to get out of the van, after which the three other rebels, brandishing handguns and each carrying a gallon of gasoline, appeared. They then poured the gasoline on the van and lighted it.

Witnesses said the four rebels casually fled on foot toward the forested area of Barangay Hibulangan, joined by at least 15 comrades who were waiting for them several meters away from the site.

Piñol said an extortion syndicate led by a certain Dragon, was believed behind the explosion inside the Wenna bus.

The group, he said, earlier had sent an extortion letter to the Wenna management.

"The group also threatened to give a sample of how harmful it can be if the bus firm will ignore its demand," he said.

Police said the bus had just reached the public terminal in Kidapawan City when the bomb, planted under one of the rear seats, went off, wounding six of the passengers and eight bystanders, mostly vendors. — Robert Dejon, Edith Regalado and John Unson