Bomb attacks in Zambo, Cotabato foiled

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Alert security forces foiled more possible bomb attacks after it recovered improvised bombs planted in this city and in Cotabato City Monday night.

Lt. Col. Randolf Cabangbang, spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command said residents immediately alerted the police when a man on board a motorcycle left a plastic bag near a shipping container yard along Gov. Ramos in Barangay San Roque around 6:10 p.m.

 “What was recovered was not actually an improvised bomb but an ordnance ammunition,” said city police director Senior Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo.

 The recovery of the bomb came barely a day after the bombings at a pension house and a cockpit center in the city that left 11 people injured.

Meanwhile, a second bomb was recovered at around 7 p.m. Monday along Gutierrez Avenue near the office of the regional governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao complex in Cotabato City, according to police director Felicisimo Khu, chief of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operation in Western Mindanao.

The improvised explosive device (IED), was found by security escorts of a local official while passing by where it was allegedly left by two men wearing jackets.

The spot where the IED was found is not far from where bystanders found last month a similar explosive which responding ordnance operatives defused using a primary disruptor to destroy the electrical circuits connecting its blasting mechanism to a mobile phone.

Investigators said the bombers could have planted the IED during a 30-minute power outage amid heavy rains in the city.

Brig. Gen. Rey Ardo, 6th Infantry Division’s commanding general, said he has enlisted the help of mayors and provincial governors under his jurisdiction to help monitor possible activities of suspicious people in their respective communities as part of the measures meant to prevent any bomb attack in Central Mindanao.