Alleged extortionists detonate IED inside Cotabato drugstore

COTABATO CITY , Philippines  – Extortionists demanding a P200,000 “protection fee” from a branch here of the Mercury Drug Store detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) inside the establishment yesterday and warned they would use a more powerful bomb soon if its management will continue to ignore their demand.

Although no one was injured or killed in the bombing, where government ordnance experts said was meant only to scare the workers of the drugstore, the explosion triggered panic in the surroundings of the establishment, located along the busy Sinsuat Avenue here.

Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane, director of the Cotabato City police, said the IED was first found by the drugstore’s janitor that the bombers left in a shelf of grocery items.

“It was just fortunate that the janitor has presence of mind and that he managed to let all his co-workers and the shoppers to leave the building right away. The IED went off when the building was already empty of people,” Dangane said.

Operatives of the Army’s 6th Explosives and Ordnance Battalion here said the IED was a “low-level explosive,” designed only to scare people and did not have enough shockwave needed to kill people within its immediate radius.