'Zambo school blast a diversionary tactic'

ZAMBOANGA CITY ,Philippines  – An improvised bomb exploded in a school in Zamboanga del Sur Thursday night in what authorities suspect to be a diversionary tactic of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels.

Two separate explosions also occurred Friday in Imelda and Malangas towns in Zamboanga Sibugay.

Police said no one was hurt in the blast that ripped through one of the classrooms in the Margos Pilot Training School in the town center of Margosatubig in Zamboanga del Sur at around 7:45 p.m. Thursday.

Senior Superintendent Jose Bayani Gucela, provincial police director and a former explosive ordnance and disposal director, said, “It appeared the explosion was meant to divert attention as the attack was not meant to cause casualties.”

Gucela suspects that the blast had something to do with the spate of atrocities staged by MILF rebels in the Zamboanga Peninsula to divert the ongoing police and military operations against MILF leader Waning Abdusalam of the front’s Special Operations Group in Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay.

Abdusalam, wanted for kidnappings and attacks, eluded the authorities last Oct. 15 when MILF rebels attacked soldiers and policemen in the village of Talaib, wounding four of them. The attack prompted the military to launch an offensive.

But the rebels stepped up its attacks in Alicia and Kabasalan towns, leaving at least seven soldiers and police officers dead and seven others wounded.

Inspector Salvador Galvez, Kabasalan police chief who survived the attack, said they received information that MILF rebels would attack vital installations to divert the attention of government forces pursuing their comrades in Payao town.