Woman hurt in North Cotabato blast; 2 men nabbed

COTABATO CITY – A bomb blast rocked a farming community in Midsayap, North Cotabato yesterday, seriously wounding a female villager and causing panic in the municipality.

Superintendent Chino Mamburam, Midsayap police chief, said two motorcycle-riding men left the bag containing the improvised explosive along a farm-to-market road in Barangay Lagumbingan after sensing that security forces had set up roadblocks near the town proper where they intended to bring the bomb.

Mamburan said a villager named Orlyn Melgas, 20, was wounded in the explosion.

He said responding militiamen and civilian volunteers promptly arrested the two suspects.

Mamburam said the suspects, who he declined to identify, confessed to their plan to bring the explosive to any busy spot at the Midsayap town proper.

Mamburam said the bomb was fashioned from a live 81mm mortar rigged with an improvised, battery-operated blasting mechanism.

"It was just fortunate that they did not push through with their plan of exploding the bomb in a busy area at the town proper of Midsayap due to the heavy presence of policemen and soldiers in key entry and exit points in the municipality," he said.

Meanwhile, police investigators finally identified one of two suspected bombers killed in a premature explosion of a homemade bomb in Cotabato City Wednesday night.

Inspector Wally Kasuyo, spokesman of the Cotabato City police, said probers recovered near the site of the blast a wallet containing a community tax certificate issued to a certain Sukarno Ismael.

Kasuyo said police intelligence agents confirmed that Ismael, a resident of Kutang Bato Subdivision here, had been missing since Wednesday morning.

Ismael, according to Kasuyo, drove the motorcycle bearing the bomb that exploded at a vacant area near the Happy Homes Subdivision in Cotabato City while possibly on his way to a busy intersection teeming with restaurants, drugstores and hangouts of teenagers.

"But the presence of policemen guarding strategic intersections in the city last Wednesday could have delayed their supposed transport of the improvised explosive from their hideout to the (target area)," Kasuyo said.

Barangay officials said Ismael likely had a companion since three mangled feet were found within a 600-meter radius of the explosion.

Kasuyo said intelligence agents were still gathering information on the identity of Ismael’s companion.