MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Bandits detonated late Tuesday a powerful roadside bomb, killing the municipal treasurer of Datu Salibo town and his four companions, among them his adolescent-son.
The fatalities, treasurer Carlos Macabangen, his son Kenneth, Alex Alpas and Bensar Agapay were onboard an air-conditioned van en route to the town proper of Datu Salibo when members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) set off a roadside bomb planted along a secluded stretch of a highway.
Local officials said the improvised explosive device (IED) used in the attack was identical with the home-made bombs the BIFF used in earlier roadside bombings in the municipality.
Captain Jo-ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division (ID), said they have been receiving persistent feedback from local folks that the bombing was to avenge the deaths of BIFF members killed by soldiers in encounters the past seven days at the tri-boundary of Maguindanao’s Datu Salibo, Datu Saudi and Datu Piang towns.
Petinglay said while they do not have actual “body count” of BIFF gunmen killed in the firefights, barangay folks have explicit accounts of the extent of the losses of the group.
Macabangen and his companions died on the spot from shrapnel wounds sustained in the explosion.
In an initial report to the 6th ID, Lt. Col. Warlito Limet, commander of the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion, which has jurisdiction over Datu Salibo town, said the bomb was fashioned from a live 81 millimeter mortar projectile rigged with a blasting mechanism attached to a mobile phone.
The IED was also packed with fragments of cast iron with jagged edges.
Members of the municipal peace and order councils in Datu Salibo, Datu Piang and Datu Saudi, all in the second district of Maguindanao, said they are expecting BIFF retaliations for the deaths of more than a dozen members killed in recurring encounters with soldiers that began last week.
The hostilities started in west of Datu Salibo when BIFF gunmen shot with rifles and shoulder-fire grenades the heavy equipment of a contractor involved in a flood control project in the area.
The BIFF perpetrated the attack after the contractor refused to shell out “protection money.”