MANILA, Philippines - Police and military authorities closed to motorists yesterday a bridge in Iligan City, which was bombed by still unidentified suspects in Barangay Agos, military officials said.
Col. Benito de Leon, chief of the Army’s 104th Infantry Brigade said in a phone interview that while they are yet to have leads on the perpetrators, investigators are looking into, among others, the possible involvement of renegade Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels in the incident.
De Leon said the suspects detonated two improvised explosive devices at the Agos Bridge, which links Iligan City in Lanao del Norte to the cities of Zamboanga and Pagadian at around 1:40 a.m. yesterday.
The 100-meter bridge, according to de Leon, is near the famous Ma. Cristina Falls.
The bombs were rigged on both approaches of the bridge causing it to sag and rendered impassable to all types of vehicles.
1st Lt. Steffani Cacho, Western Mindanao Command spokesman, said responding elements of the PNP and Army found that both approaches of the structural support of the Agu Bridge was blown off.
Cacho said explosive ordnance and disposal units elements have been dispatched to determine the type of bomb used in the powerful explosion that damaged glass windows of the government edifices few hundred meters away from the site.
Lanao del Norte is where fugitive MILF Commander Abdurahman Macapaar alias Commander Bravo and his followers operate.
“I think that (MILF involvement) is being pursued, but as of the moment it is difficult to determine and everything as of now is speculation,” De Leon said.
Macapaar is being hunted down by government troops since August last year after he and his men led a murderous rampage in civilian communities in the province after the botched signing of the Bangsamoro homeland deal.
The government has offered P10 million for Macapaar’s arrest or neutralization.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who admitted that the hunt for the fugitive commander and renegade MILF leaders Ameril Umbra Kato and Aleem Sulaiman has become more difficult, adding there is a need to intensify intelligence gathering operations to pinpoint their whereabouts.
He also said that the security efforts in other parts of Mindanao, particularly in Sulu, have somehow affected the military’s focus.
In related developments, several people were wounded when a bomb exploded inside a parked Rural Transit bus at around 1:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon in Kabacan.
Initial reports bared the victims were immediately brought to the different hospitals in Kabacan.
The bus was reported to have come from Cagayan de Oro City and was on its way to Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat.
The bombing in Kabacan actually followed the twin blasts that hit the Agus Bridge at Ma. Cristina Village in Iligan City at around 1:40 a.m. also yesterday morning.
Thousands of commuters were stranded yesterday as the twin bombings have caused heavy damage to the bridge that linked Iligan City to Lanao del Norte.
The bombings also destroyed certain houses as well as the National Power Corp. warehouse that were just adjacent to the Agus Bridge.
Police and military personnel immediately cordoned off the bridge as it was rendered impassable by the twin explosions.
Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command chief Maj. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer said security forces were also alerted on the possibility that the said perpetrators would also target the transmission lines supplying power all over Mindanao. – With Edith Regalado, Evelyn Macairan, Lino de la Cruz