1 killed, 2 hurt in North Cotabato explosion
COTABATO CITY, Philippines – A bystander was killed while two others were injured when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off in a bus terminal in Carmen, North Cotabato yesterday, the military said.
Brig. Gen. Ariel Bernardo, assistant division commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the victims – Johnny Sabando, Artemio Rivera, and another named Nandih Pontongan, an ethnic Maguindanaon – were within the terminal premises when the IED exploded.
Pontongan died while being rushed to the North Cotabato Provincial Hospital in Kidapawan City, about 40 kilometers northeast of Carmen.
Bernardo said Army intelligence agents are now helping the police determine the veracity of circulating stories that one of the three injured bystanders could be the one carrying the bag containing the IED.
“We’ll have to look into that very seriously. Let’s help the police in investigating that incident,” Bernardo said.
Police intelligence operatives said they are receiving persistent feedback purporting that Pontongan was a member of a rouge Moro faction and was to plant an IED inside one of the buses plying the Bukidnon-North Cotabato route.
Investigators said the IED, fashioned from a live mortar round rigged with an improvised blasting mechanism attached to a cellular phone, went off even before Pontongan could put it inside a bus.
Preceding the incident was last month’s deadly bombing of a bus in nearby Matalam town, also in North Cotabato, which left 10 dead and caused injuries to more than 20 others. – John Unson, Jaime Laude, AP
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