3 suspects in pub explosion hunted

COTABATO CITY – Lawmen are hot on the trail of three men believed behind Thursday night’s grenade attack at a videoke pub here which left a 32-year-old woman dead and caused injuries to seven others.

The lone fatality, Joan Dampas, whose lower extremities were severed by the blast, was declared dead on arrival at a hospital here.

Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane, city police chief, said the three men showed up at the Fama Videoke Pub searching for a certain guest relations officer (GRO) minutes before the powerful blast ripped through the establishment.

“Our investigators are now trying their best to identify all three of them and subject them to extensive questioning,” Dangane said.

Dangane said Army and police bomb experts still have to confirm if the explosive used in the bombing was a fragmentation grenade, as initially suspected.

Dangane quoted the pub’s security guard as saying that three “regular customers” showed up and surprisingly left right before the blast.

“Maybe because the three men were known to the people in the (pub) and were known to the guard, they were not subjected to the mandatory body search for firearms and other weapons anymore,” he said.

Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema said he is convinced that extortion or personal grudge could have motivated the attack.

Six of the seven wounded in the blast were GROs, identified as Rowena Tangkaan, Hazel Taiden, Paula Oliveros, Gina Tampudi, Juvy Retos and Johanna Feura.

Roberto Cabigas, a worker of the Cotabato Light and Power Company, who was whiling away his time at the pub, was also wounded.

The victims were immediately discharged from the hospital after their superficial shrapnel wounds were treated.