MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Two villagers and a policeman were hurt in separate explosions Friday night in North Upi town in Maguindanao.
Jonathan Lingatong and Allan De Guzman were both injured in the first blast that ripped through a public school campus in Barangay Borongotan in the upland North Upi municipality in the first district of Maguindanao.
They were among more than 200 people watching a basketball game in the campus that got disrupted by the bombing.
Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares of the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said Saturday another explosive hit a vehicle carrying responding personnel of the North Upi police, hurting its driver, PO1 Marjun Lahay-lahay.
The roadside bomb was planted along a route near the scene of the first explosion.
Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, chairman of the inter-agency provincial peace and order council, told reporters via text message Saturday that he is ready to shell out an earnest amount in exchange for information leading to the arrest of the bombers.
Friday’s spate of bombings in North Upi was something so unusual for its Muslim, Christian and Lumad communities.
Mijares said he has directed Senior Superintendent Agustin Tello, director of the Maguindanao provincial police, to tap the help of local officials in their on-going probe on the incident.
Local police probers are still clueless on who could have perpetrated the bombings and their motive for the attacks.