ARMM eyes reward for info on deadly Basilan bombing

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Mujiv Hataman on Thursday said he is willing to put up cash as reward for information about the culprits behind the bombing in Basilan on Tuesday which killed seven and wounded five.

“I am willing to shell out an earnest amount as a reward in exchange for any information that would lead to the arrest of the people responsible for the bombing,” Hataman said.

Hataman, other ARMM officials and the police toured Barangay Tumahubong in Sumisip to gather information on the incident.

Hataman, the presiding chairman of the inter-agency regional peace and order council, said the ARMM police are ready provide protection to witnesses who could help investigators arrest the bombers.

Hataman cut short his trip to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where he and his family were performing the Umrah hajj.

Seven villagers were killed while five others were wounded when one of two suspects blasted a fragmentation grenade in a gazebo full of merry-makers in a yard about a hundred meters away from the barangay’s San Vicente chapel, while a night time mass was about to start.

One theory is that the bombers' original target was the  chapel, but were thwarted by the presence of soldiers near the worship site.

The five Tumahubong residents wounded in the explosion are now confined at a hospital in Zamboanga City, being assisted by representatives of the ARMM’s Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Relief Team (HEART) led by the region’s assistant secretary for local government, Juni Ilimin and Regional Executive Secretary Laisa Alamia.

Barangay Tumahubong, located at the western side of Sumisip, is near the municipality’s Buli-Buli District, where the Hataman family hails from.

Investigators said a grenade was used in the bombing, not an improvised explosive device as earlier reported.

Barangay officials  said  the bombers could have targeted the chapel, but changed their plan when they saw that dozens of combatants of the Army’s 64th Infantry Battalion were in the area.

“The gazebo the bombers targeted was filled with merry-makers. It is about a hundred meters away from the chapel,” a barangay official, who asked not to be identified, said.

Witnesses said two men riding a motorcycle together were seen suspiciously roaming near the chapel before a powerful explosion ripped through the village.

The gazebo the suspects bombed is owned by Manuel Cisneros, a local member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit.

Barangay Tumahubong is at the center of a 4,000-hectare rubber plantation developed in the 1960s by the multinational tire manufacturer BF Goodrich, which shut down in the 1980s when the farm was subjected to the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

Residents of Tumahubong were awarded with parcels of land planted with rubber, which were placed under control of a cooperative, now heavily indebted.

The ARMM’s HEART has initially provided the victims of the grenade attack now confined in a hospital with rice, canned goods and cash assistance, according to Hataman.

Cash assistance have also been extended by the ARMM governor to the families of the villagers who perished in the bombing. - John Unson