Child killed, 4 hurt in blast

PARANG, Maguindanao , Philippines  – A 12-year-old child was killed while four others were badly wounded when an improvised explosive believed planted by rivals of a candidate for municipal councilor here prematurely went off past 8 a.m. yesterday.

Superintendent Alex Lineses, acting director of the Maguindanao police, said Brah Paulino, a resident of Barangay Bacolod, died from multiple shrapnel wounds.

Four others – Johaire Maruhom, Lineth Lidasan, and siblings Janudin and Saidamen Ayob, all minors – were wounded in the explosion.

Lineses said the victims were apparently whiling away their time in a parked multi-cab owned by Rajah Muda Kasim, a municipal council candidate, when the explosive planted underneath the vehicle went off.

P02 Warlito Katoh, officer-on-case, said the explosive was fashioned from a live 60-mm mortar projectile rigged with a battery-operated blasting mechanism attached to a mobile phone.

“It is possible that the bomb was meant to kill Mr. Kasim, but it exploded prematurely,” Katoh told reporters.

This town’s re-electionist mayor, Talib Abo, said Kasim leaves his house regularly at 9 a.m. and goes around town to visit his friends and relatives to make himself visible in Muslim and Christian communities here.

“We are looking into different angles. The bombing could be politically motivated or possibly due to a long-time rido (clan war) involving the target of that bombing and another family,” Abo said.

Residents here are no stranger to election-related killings and bombings. Five people were killed while more than 40 others were wounded in January 2004 when suspected partisans blasted a motorcycle laden with a powerful improvised explosive at the entrance of a gymnasium where hundreds of people were watching an invitational match organized by the mayor of Parang town then, retired Army Col. Ven Bataga.

Bataga was himself wounded in the bombing.

More than a dozen people here have also been killed in various incidents in the past three years.          – John Unson