2 Catholics hurt in Cotabato City chapel bombing

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A grenade blast ripped through the Sto. Niño Chapel in Purok Bagong Silang in Barangay Rosary Heights 3 here on Sunday morning, hurting two worshipers and causing panic among villagers in houses around.

Col. Querubin Manalang Jr., Cotabato City police director, told reporters that two Catholics, Marybel Atis, 40, and the 65-year-old Rosita Tubilo, were hurt in the explosion.

The victims were among some Catholics together praying inside the small worship site when one of two men riding together a motorcycle that pulled over near its entrance door hurled at them a fragmentation grenade and immediately motored away.

Atis and Tubilo, who sustained shrapnel wounds in different parts of their bodies, were immediately brought to a hospital by barangay emergency responders for treatment.

The explosion caused panic among mixed Muslim and Christian residents of Purok Silangan in Barangay Rosary Heights 3 in northeast of this city.

Sunday morning’s grenade attack at the Sto. Niño Chapel here was preceded by the bombing by the Dawlah Islamiya in December 2023 of Catholics hearing mass at the Dimaporo Gymnasium inside the campus of the Mindanao State University in Marawi City, killing four persons and hurting more than 40 others.

The cities of Cotabato and Marawi are both in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.