Blasts rock Cotabato

COTABATO CITY – Just as Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan was delivering his state-of-the region-address (SORA) yesterday, unidentifed assailants fired mortal shells yesterday in a nearby residential area.

Superintendent Peraco Macacua, city police chief, said the two 60 mm mortars, apparently fired from a distance, landed in Purok Pinen, Barangay Rosary Heights 7 at 2:30 p.m.

Two persons were wounded in the explosions. Ampatuan was unhurt, but one child was injured.

Superintendent Roberto Badian, ARMM-PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief, said the projectiles only had an effective projection range of about two kilometers, indicating the suspects launched them not far from the city proper.

The suspects, according to Badian, were unfazed by the heavy presence of soldiers and policemen fielded in strategic areas around the city as part of the security measures for Ampatuan’s SORA, his second since his election in 2005.

Dozens of foreign businessmen and diplomats from member-states of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) attended the SORA.

Macacua said police investigators are still verifying if the blasts were aimed at disrupting the SORA at the heavily guarded 32-hectare ARMM compound here.

Early last month, Cental Mindanao was also rocked by a spate of bomb explosions that killed eight people and injured several others

Ampatuan’s father, Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan, also survived a bomb attack last June 23 in their hometown in Shariff Aguak, the provincial capital. The bombing left seven people dead and caused serious injuries to more than 10 others.

Ampatuan, in his SORA, renewed his support to the ongoing peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

"I will continue to support the peace process, from the negotiations until the successful culmination of the peace talks," Ampatuan said.

He reiterated his appeal to the government and MILF panels to allow representation of the ARMM in the ongoing peace talks, which started on Jan. 7, 1997, but gained headway only about three years ago with the involvement of Malaysia as third party mediator.

Also present in the SORA were representatives of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team, led by Gen. Ismail Khan, and the chairman of the government’s ceasefire committee, Brig. Gen. Edgardo Gurrea.

Ampatuan also pointed out that he has succeeded in professionalizing the regional bureaucracy by purging the ranks of employees involved in syndicates operating in different line agencies. —  With James Mananghaya, AP