Midsayap bombing suspect identified

DAVAO CITY — Authorities have identified the suspect in the bombing of a mosque in Midsayap, North Cotabato that left four people dead and 30 others wounded last Friday.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol said their initial investigation showed one of the worshippers inside the mosque was the suspect.

"We have already identified him, although we cannot divulge his name yet. Based on reports from the field, he was a Muslim and was one of the worshippers during the noon prayers. He hurriedly went out of the mosque and threw the grenades," he said.

Piñol said the provincial government raised the reward for the capture of the bomber to P100,000.

"The amount will be paid right away to any informant who can point to the real culprit, (who is) now the subject of an intense police and military manhunt," he said.

Midsayap police commander Chief Inspector Eduardo Marquez said the grenade attacks, which took place inside a compound belonging to the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), was probably work-related.

NIA regional director Macmod Mending, was one of those killed in the grenade attack and most of the casualties, including 17 of the wounded, were also agency employees.

Marquez said a driver for the agency noticed a man standing outside the mosque before Friday prayers and spoke with him, inviting him to join the prayers. However the unidentified man, speaking in a local dialect, declined.

Later, the driver saw the man hurling a grenade into the mosque and then fleeing, Marquez said.

The driver, who was wounded in the attack and whose identity is being withheld for security reasons, has said he would recognize the man again if he saw him again.

"The witness said the suspect refused (to go inside for prayers) because he had to relieve himself. The suspect, according to the witness, was wearing a baseball cap, a maroon shirt and black pants," Marquez said.

Police have a cartographic sketch of the suspect who spoke Maguindanao but he is still at large.

Marquez said he does not believe the incident had religious undertones and was likely work-related, recalling that the NIA recently laid off a number of workers.

The irrigation agency’s compound is normally restricted to employees only but local Muslims have access to the mosque on Fridays for prayers.

"It (grenade attack) was work-related and must have something to do with the irrigation projects either in Malmar or in Kabulnan (towns)," Piñol added.

Piñol also brushed off speculations that the grenade attacks could trigger a religious war. "It will not happen because it was never religious in the first place. The people there know what happened," he said.

Witnesses said they heard two loud, almost simultaneous explosions, and rushed to the mosque, where they saw the worshippers running in different directions. Some were lying bloodied on the floor, they added.

Witnesses initially said they saw two men fleeing from the scene on board a motorcycle after the explosion.

Armed Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero earlier claimed "an undetermined number of men" carried out the attack but could provide no further details. The MILF, on the other hand, denied carrying out the attack.

Military sources also agreed the attack may be linked to the recent retrenching of NIA employees.

"There are also problems between contractors involved in irrigation projects and the NIA?s office," one source from the Army intelligence said.

The NIA in Central Mindanao, according to insiders, has been known to hire rebel leaders as "casuals" in areas where it has projects to ensure the safety of workers and heavy equipment.

Meanwhile, Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, outgoing president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), has asked the President to order the police and military to step up the investigations into the mosque bombing.

"I call on the President to do everything within her power to have this problem resolved and prevent any possible escalation of violence," said Quevedo, whose diocese also covers Midsayap.

In a pastoral statement read by priests all over Central Mindanao, Quevedo also urged people who may have information regarding the bombing to cooperate with investigators.

"Whoever perpetrated this diabolical act has no respect for religion, for human beings and for God," he said.

The Cotabato archbishop said he is apprehensive that unscrupulous groups may use the Midsayap bombing to foment religious, ideological and political strife among the culturally diverse people of Central Mindanao. - with John Unson, AFP