Bomb scare hits North Cotabato’s radio station

COTABATO CITY – A bomb scare on Friday night sent employees of North Cotabato’s pioneer and biggest Catholic radio station running for their lives.

Using bomb-sniffing dogs, responding policemen and Army bomb experts search the surroundings of Catholic station dxND in Kidapawan City for more than two hours, but found nothing.

Station dxND is one of the five broadcast outfits, scattered in Central Mindanao, of the Oblate congregation, which has an extensive advocacy for religious and cultural solidarity among the region’s mixed Muslim and non-Muslim residents.

Malu Cadeliña-Manar, programs director of dxND, said they panicked when two of their co-employees received anonymous calls purporting that a powerful improvised explosive device has been planted inside the station.

The incident came just about a year after government ordnance operatives defused two EID, fashioned from live 81 MM mortar projectiles rigged with time-delayed blasting devices and planted at the parking lot of dxND.

The two EIDs were found about two hours before then North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol, who is known for his virtually ruthless policy in dealing with local criminal gangs and rouge secessionist factions, was to arrive at dxND to host his weekly radio program, Pareng Gob, which focused on his administration’s accomplishments.

The bomb scare came at the heels of Friday’s airing by dxND of statements by peasant groups and non-government organizations rejecting the planned testing of genetically-modified crops in the province. – John Unson