13 hurt in Cotabato bus bombing

COTABATO CITY — Suspected extortionists bombed a passenger bus in North Cotabato’s Kabacan town yesterday morning, wounding 13 commuters, mostly minors.

The explosion triggered a fire that destroyed the unit of the Bachelor Bus Co., with body number 2904 and plying the North Cotabato-Bukidnon route.

Driver Elias Ella, who survived the attack unscathed, said the bomb exploded just five minutes after they had left the Bachelor terminal in the Kabacan town proper for Damulog, Bukidnon.

Ella told police investigators that the bomb, fashioned from a live B-40 rocket rigged with a battery-operated timing device, could have been planted in the cargo trunk in the rear portion of the bus while parked at the terminal.

Some of the victims, who sustained shrapnel wounds in different parts of their bodies, were rushed to private clinics in Kabacan. — John Unson