North Cotabato bombing death toll rises to 3

KIDAPAWAN, Philippines (UPDATED) — The death toll from a bomb blast in a billiard hall near a crowded town carnival in M'lang, North Cotabato has risen to three, officials said Monday.

Army spokeswoman Capt Jo-ann Petinglay said the death toll rose overnight after one of the wounded died in hospital. Another 22 people were wounded in the blast.

M'lang Mayor Joselito Piñol, chairman of the municipal peace and order council (MPOC), identified the three fatalities as John Camiring, Jade Villarin, and Francis Rio.

Piñol said two men left the bomb, which was apparently concealed in a bag, at the billiard hall late Sunday. The two men left hurriedly on a motorcycle before the blast happened.

The mayor said that the bomb, fashioned from a live mortar projectile packed with fragments of cast iron with jagged edges, was placed on a bench near the billiard hall near the city plaza.

"Obviously it was detonated from a distance using a mobile phone attached to its blasting mechanism," he said.

Piñol said bomb shrapnel and flying debris hit people in the billiard hall and in a nearby carnival. The blast damaged the billiard hall.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Government troops have been on alert for possible attacks in the region by a Muslim rebel faction opposed to a new peace deal between the government and a larger Muslim insurgent group.

Piñol said he has convened the inter-agency MPOC and called on its members, including Muslim and Christian leaders, to help the police in the investigation.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, chairperson of the provincial peace and order council, condemned the latest bombing in the province and assured financial assistance for the burial of the slain victims and for the medical treatment of those injured. - with Associated Press