3 blasts rock Central Mindanao

COTABATO CITY — Explosions rocked three towns in Central Mindanao the other day in what the police suspect were related to Monday’s general elections.

Although no one was reported killed or wounded in the blasts, the police and the military have tightened security in many parts of Mindanao to prevent a repeat of the bombings.

A suspected partisan fired a 40-mm. grenade projectile at the yard of Gabriel Gador, a member of the municipal board of canvassers, in Pikit, North Cotabato, causing panic among his family members and their neighbors.

Pikit officials said they are convinced that the bombing was politically motivated. The canvassing of election returns in Pikit was still ongoing at press time.

The Pikit bombing was followed by a grenade blast at an intersection of two busy roads here.

Senior Inspector Abdulwahid Pedtucasan, chief of Cotabato City’s Precinct 1, said a motorcycle-riding man was said to have tossed the fragmentation grenade at the junction and managed to escape just seconds before the explosion.

The third blast occurred at a residential area in President Quirino, Sultan Kudarat.