Another suspected MILF bombing try foiled in North Cotabato

COTABATO CITY — Bomb experts yesterday thwarted an attack by suspected renegade Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels against the Iglesia ni Cristo church in Kabacan, North Cotabato.

Authorities said the bombing attempt, the second in two days, was thwarted after an informant tipped off police on the explosives found at the site.

Chief Inspector Franklin Anito, Kabacan municipal police chief, said bomb experts immediately defused the makeshift bomb that was left near the INC church.

Anito said this was the second attempt after a similar explosive device left in front of the Jehovah’s Witnesses chapel in the town was defused by police last Wednesday.

North Cotabato provincial officials claimed they have uncovered a plot by renegade MILF factions to foment animosity between Muslims and Christians by attacking places of worship to spark sectarian violence.

The North Cotabato police blamed MILF “militants” for the bombing attempt Wednesday night of the Jehovah’s Witnesses chapel in Kabacan.

North Cotabato Vice Gov. Emmanuel Piñol said the bombing was meant to divert the attention of military units running after MILF’s recalcitrant commander Ameril Umbra Kato in Maguindanao.

Kato and his men had set on fire a 40-year-old Catholic chapel in Pikit, North Cotabato last August.

The burnt chapel was rebuilt with the help of local military units and US servicemen involved in various humanitarian projects in Pikit and surrounding towns.

Piñol said they have been receiving persistent feedback from Muslim sectors in North Cotabato that MILF extremists wanted to spark sectarian violence between Muslim and Christian communities.

Army’s 6th Infantry Division spokesman Lt. Col. Julieto Ando said the military has deployed dozens of plainclothes intelligence operatives in North Cotabato to monitor attempts by militants to bomb worship sites in the province.

In its wake

Authorities, on the other hand, have tightened security in Mindanao with the expected pullout of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) over the weekend.

The IMT is a contingent of representatives from Malaysia, Brunei, Libya, and Japan, keeping tabs on the implementation of the ceasefire agreement between the Philippine government and the MILF.

The IMT’s tour of duty in Mindanao will end today.

Ando said they have received intelligence reports that renegade MILF groups would take advantage of the expected withdrawal of the IMT in Central Mindanao.

The Philippine government is negotiating for the IMT delegation to extend their tour by appealing to the respective governments to allow their delegates to stay on until after the revival of the peace talks with the MILF.

Presidential adviser on the peace process Hermogenes Esperon said Brunei and Libya have opted to stay to continue monitoring the ceasefire agreement.

Brunei and Libya joined Japan in deciding to maintain their representatives to monitor the truce and the humanitarian projects their respective governments implemented after Malaysia terminated its participation in the IMT.

The Malaysian delegation of 12 military officers and personnel pulled out from the IMT, ending their three-month extended tour on Sunday.

The Malaysian foreign minister announced Thursday it has opted to defer an extension beyond the Nov. 30 mandate.

Esperon said Brunei and Libya, however, joined Japan in deciding to stay put.

The Libyan government last May initially announced its willingness to lead the IMT after Malaysia said they are going to pull out by August, the original date of withdrawal.

Malaysia then agreed to extend the deadline after hostilities with the MILF broke out in Central Mindanao.

Elsewhere, authorities are also looking into the involvement of other criminal groups behind the grenade attack that left 14 people wounded in Butuan City last Friday.

Police investigators initially ruled out the involvement of communist rebels since their investigation showed the attack stemmed from a personal grudge.

The victims were in a meeting when two unidentified suspects riding tandem on a black motorcycle threw grenades in the attempt to disperse the gathering. – With Roel Pareño, Jaime Laude