Bomb try at Cotabato university thwarted

COTABATO CITY - Army bomb experts thwarted yesterday an attempt to blast, using powerful incendiary bombs, a building of the state-run University of Southern Mindanao (USM) in Kabacan, North Cotabato.

Maj. Miguelito Reyes, commanding officer of the Army’s 6th Explosive and Ordnance Disposal Detachment, said the bombs, made of highly combustible substance and rigged with time-delayed blasting devices, were planted in different spots inside the USM’s education building.

The explosives, neatly contained in school bags, were first discovered by students shortly before their lunchbreak yesterday.

"It was good that the students were vigilant and immediately reported what they found to school authorities and the local police," Reyes said.

Responding policemen and bomb experts, led by Sgt. Santiago Nesteros, succeeded in deactivating the homemade bombs before they could explode.

Reyes said the Kabacan police command is now investigating the people responsible for the foiled bombing attempt and their possible motives.

USM’s students and faculty members are no strangers to bombings inside their campus, having witnessed bomb attacks that had claimed lives in recent years.

Last year, the campus was twice rocked by grenade explosions which left five students dead and more than 20 others injured.