Kidapawan, adjoining areas unprepared for terror attacks

COTABATO CITY — Last Thursday’s bombing in Kidapawan City was the area’s worst ever, an atrocity that convinced local officials to allot more funds for costly security measures to avert such terrorist attacks.

"It was for that incident that we have realized that we, in Kidapawan City and surrounding towns, are not prepared for emergency situations," lamented North Cota—bato’s iron-fisted governor, Emmanuel Piñol.

Piñol, chairman of the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC), said there could have been more casualties in the blast if not for the help of tricycle drivers who volunteered to rush the victims to different hospitals.

"What if there were no tricycles around when the bombing occurred? We did not have enough intelligence agents and bomb-sniffing dogs to detect explosives in populated areas," he said.

Six people were killed while 23 others were seriously wounded in the bombing, blamed on the so-called "Suicide Bombers Team," one of five extortion gangs identified with the notorious Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom syndicate.

Yesterday, Kidapawan Mayor Luis Malaluan upped by P100,000 the P500,000 reward earlier jointly offered by President Arroyo and Piñol for any information leading to the arrest of the bombers.

Capt. Ferdinand Escalante, commanding officer of the 6th Explosive and Ordnance Detachment here, said the military, on Piñol’s request, has brought two bomb-sniffing dogs from Manila to Kidapawan.

Escalante said their operatives and police officers are now scouring critical spots in Kidapawan round-the-clock.

The PPOC released yesterday P10,000 cash assistance to each of the families of the six fatalities, among them a six-year-old son of a fruit vendor in the bus terminal.

Those wounded will receive varying aid based on their medical needs, Piñol said.

Various sectors in Central Mindanao are convinced that the bombing could be a "test mission" for a group of 50 or so young recruits whom a secessionist rebel faction has trained.

The incident came three days after members of the Army’s 6th Explosives and Ordnance Detachment safely defused what they described was a "well-made, powerful improvised explosive device" found under an office table of a dean of a state-run college here.

Senior Superintendent Sangacala Dampac, Cotabato City police chief, said the suspect in the foiled bombing, Montaser Guiday, has confessed to his links with radical Muslim groups and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Guiday was caught while fleeing from the campus.

Dampac said Guiday has also admitted belonging to a group which just underwent training in fabrication of homemade bombs. The police chief did not elaborate.

Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said they still have no solid clues that would point to the MILF’s possible involvement in the bombing.

The Pentagon syndicate, which includes rogue MILF members, has reportedly broken up into smaller, independent extortion and kidnapping gangs following the death of its leader, Faisal Marohombsar, in a shootout with policemen in Cavite two months ago.

Two of the Pentagon’s extortion rings, the Suicide Bombers Team and the Dragon group, have claimed responsibility for recent bombings in commercial establishments in Central Mindanao, such as the one in front of the WG&A office in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao and aboard units of the Wenna bus company.

Piñol said he has been receiving persistent feedback that the Dragon group, which has links with criminal gangs holding out at the Liguasan Marsh, a 220,000-hectare delta at the border of Maguindanao and North Cotabato, was responsible for the Kida—pawan blast.