4 hurt in another C. Mindanao bombing

KIDAPAWAN CITY - Four more persons were injured in another blast that rocked Central Mindanao yesterday morning, less than 24 hours after bombs exploded inside two buses plying the Cotabato-Davao route.

Superintendent Willie Dangane, Cotabato City police chief, said the four victims, one of them in critical condition, sustained shrapnel wounds when a fragmentation grenade exploded at the city's busy public market at about 7 a.m. yesterday.

The wounded market-goers were identified as Dante Teriales, 30, Sajid Usman, 70, and a certain Rico and Karryl, a girl in her puberty whom doctors gave a 50-50 chance of survival.

Dangane said the grenade, lobbed by a still unidentified man from a pathway, exploded near the market's administration building.

"Because of the commotion, the bomb thrower managed to escape," Dangane said.

Catholic radio station dxMS quoted witnesses as saying the unsuspecting victims milled around the grenade, wrapped in paper, when it went off.

Policemen and Marine agents of the Mindanao Area 1 unit of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) have been fielded in all the city's entry and exit points to track down the attackers.

Maj. Gen. Diomedio Villanueva, chief of the military's Southern Command, said bomb-sniffing dogs will be deployed in key cities and probable terrorist targets in Mindanao amid the spate of bombings.

Market vendors have insinuated that the grenade attack could have been pulled off by members of a big extortion syndicate operating in the city to pressure them to shell out "protection money."

Members of the Cotabato City business community have confirmed that extortionists have been operating in the area, unfazed by the heavy presence of policemen, Marines and Army troops in the city proper and nearby towns in Maguindanao.

"The kidnapping problem has waned through the efforts of the PAOCTF and the city government and the extortionists are the ones pestering us," a 35-year-old Chinese merchant told The STAR.

Yesterday's incident in Cotabato City was preceded by the bombings of two Weena Buses in Matalam, North Cotabato and at the public terminal here the other day.

The police have no solid clues yet on the identities of the people behind the twin atrocities, except to theorize that these could have been perpetrated either by extortionists or members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

"Our investigators are still gathering more information on these incidents. Meantime, we are enforcing tight security measures to prevent a repeat of these incidents," said Superintendent Alex Paul Monteagudo, North Cotabato police director.

Cristino Digdigan, conductor of the Weena bus that was hit by the first blast in Matalam town, said he was busy checking the airconditioning unit of the vehicle when the bomb went off.

A male passenger, according to Digdigan, was slightly wounded in his left hand while another sustained a contusion on the head when the stunned passengers scrambled for the door of the bus and forced their way out.

The incident was followed by another blast also inside another Weena bus, with body number 850, while parked at the public terminal here.

Local investigators said seven people were wounded in the explosion, but most of them only sustained superficial wounds and were sent home.

No one was killed in the bombing here, contrary to earlier reports stating that the explosion left two commuters dead.

Army Maj. Julieto Ando, civil-military relations officer of the 6th Infantry Division, said their intelligence units are now helping the local police determine the identities of the bombers.

"As of now, it is still premature to name a particular group behind these bombings," Ando said.

Last month, bombs exploded on buses on board a ferry in Ozamiz City, killing at least 35 people, in the worst such attack against civilians in recent years. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but a suspect, believed to be a member of the MILF, has been arrested. - With Roel Pareño and Alvin Tarroza