Grenade attack not related to spate of Mindanao bombings

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Officials are convinced that Friday night’s bombing of a militiaman’s house in Kabacan town in the first district of the province could not be related to the latest spate of bombings in Central Mindanao.

Four persons, among them a nine-year-old boy, were injured when gunmen fired a 40mm grenade projectile on a house of Edwin Antolin, 45, a member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit.

Antolin, his nine-year-old son, Drazer, and his in-laws, spouses Benjamin and Luz Ferrer, were wounded in the blast. They are now confined at a hospital in the town proper of Kabacan.

The victims were dining together when the shoulder-fire 40-MM grenade, fired from a distance, landed on the roof of their houses and exploded.

Senior Superintendent Danny Peralta, director of the North Cotabato provincial police, said they are still investigating the incident.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that the attack targeted Antolin.

Local officials are certain that the attack was not related to the recent spate of bombings in Central Mindanao, including last Monday’s deadly car bomb explosion in Cotabato City, which killed eight people and injured more than 30 others.

Kabacan folks are no stranger to grenade attacks and a seemingly never-ending cycle of vendetta killings due to the high prevalence of rido (clan war) cases involving feuding local Moro families.

Friday night’s grenade incident in the area was preceded by the nighttime bombing more than two weeks ago of the administration building of the University of Southern Mindanao, North Cotabato’s largest state-run school located at the town proper of Kabacan.

No one was killed or injured in the bombing, but the incident triggered panic among students and faculty members residing in the university's sprawling 6,000-hectare campus.

Friday night’s bombardment of Antolin’s house in Kabacan was preceded by Wednesday dawn’s powerful explosion of an improvised explosive device at the entrance of a branch of the money remittance firm MLhuillier at a commercial district in Midsayap town also in the first district of North Cotabato.

Investigators were convinced that the bomb, fashioned from two live 60 MM mortar projectiles, were set to explode when the firm has opened for business, when there are already clients ready to transact, but exploded prematurely.

The bomb was placed underneath a bench fronting the entrance of the LM Lhuillier branch, where clients seat while waiting for their turn to transact.