Bomb explodes outside election office in Sulu

ZAMBOANGA CITY — A makeshift bomb exploded Saturday night outside an elections office in the island of Jolo, causing minor damage but no casualties, police and officials said yesterday.

The explosion damaged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in Jolo’s provincial administrative building, just days ahead of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in the restive island.

Anti-terror chief Maj. Gen. Ruben Pabustan said the bomb was left in a rubbish bin outside the entrance and troops and bomb experts had secured the building.

Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants and other armed groups connected to warring politicians operate in this province, an impoverished island in the country’s southernmost tip.

“There were no casualties, perhaps it was meant only to sow terror but we are investigating the incident lest there are other motives in the attack,” Pabustan said.

Amilbahar Amilasan, Presidential Assistant for Sulu, said reports reaching his office disclosed that the explosion sent people nearby into mild panic.

He said troops under the Jolo Internal Defense Force (JIDF) immediately secured the areas while the military explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) elements and K9 unit fanned the area to determine if the area was already cleared.

Initial investigation disclosed that ammonium nitrate was used as explosive material based on the bomb residue collected by the EOD.

But Pabustan said the way the bomb was detonated intended no casualty as the attack was perpetrated during an unholy hour when no people were near the bombed site.

The Abu Sayyaf group has not claimed responsibility as they continue to run due to relentless military offensive.

Troops are now scouring Jolo’s interior jungles and hinterlands for remnants of the group, whom the military blamed for the country’s worst terrorist attacks, including the firebombing of a passenger ferry in Manila Bay that left over 100 dead in 2004.

“However, there could be other motives and that’s what we should know because the province will be holding the special barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in some areas where the polling failed last October,” Pabustan said.

The Comelec has set Dec. 15 as the special barangay and SK elections in at least 70 barangays in Sulu and three other areas of Basilan, Shariff Kabunsuan, and parts of Cotabato City where the election failed.

As a reaction to this, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARRM) police have deployed today more policemen in Sulu following the bombing.

The deployment is part of the effort to ensure the conduct of the special polls next week in the province.

Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, director of the ARMM police, said the bombing could be a ploy to intimidate local poll officials from administering the forthcoming elections.

Goltiao said he has recommended to the Comelec the enlistment of policemen as poll clerks and canvassers to ensure a peaceful and orderly conduct of the special barangay and SK elections in parts of the province.– John Unson