Bomb recovered from battlefield in Maguindanao detonated

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Ordnance experts on Monday detonated a 113-kilogram bomb in Maguindanao’s Guindulungan town, where Moro rebels and state forces figured in tactical engagements in years past.

The MK81 all-purpose military bomb, equipped with a tail retarding device and apparently dropped by an Air Force fixed-wing aircraft, was first found by peasants in Barangay Datal Pandan southeast of Guindulungan.

Key sources from the joint ceasefire committee of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and from the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) told The STAR the bomb was deactivated by Army bomb experts and a team from the Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines and the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action.

The Swiss demining outfit is helping clear scenes of bloody rebel-military encounters in Central Mindanao from unexploded mines, improvised explosive devices, booby traps and dud artillery projectiles and bombs in support of the peace overture between the government and the MILF.

“It was detonated in a pit which was covered by the bomb experts after the disposal process,” said an IMT member, who asked not to be identified for lack of authority to speak on the issue.

The bomb’s drab olive paint has not faded yet, indicating it might have been used only either during the 2003, or in the 2008 hostilities in the area between Moro secessionist forces and the military.

Captain Joan Petinglay, spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said Monday’s deployment of military bomb disposal operatives in Barangay Datal Pandan was coordinated with the ceasefire committee of the MILF.

Petinglay said local officials also helped initiate the needed coordination with the military and the ceasefire committee for the MK81 bomb to be properly disposed off.

The MK81 was first developed in the United States of American in the early 1960s and was used extensively by the US Air Force during the Vietnam War.