Boy, 6, killed in grenade blast near registration center in ARMM

MANILA, Philippines - A six-year-old boy was killed while his mother was wounded in an explosion that occurred near a voters’ registration center in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao last Monday, the military said.  

Col. Prudencio Asto, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the grenade blast occurred in the vicinity of the Barangay Timbangan multi-purpose hall in Shariff Aguak town.

Asto said two men aboard a motorcycle threw the grenade at a store about 10 meters away from the voters’ registration center. 

Col. Mayoralgo de la Cruz, commander of the Army’s 1st Mechanized Brigade, identified the fatality as six-year-old Agata Lawani Pangilan who died in a local hospital. The boy’s mother, Samera, 27, sustained injuries.

Authorities were looking at clan war or personal feud as possible motive behind the incident.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is expecting at least 1.3 million registrants in the ARMM as the voters’ listup in the region ends today.

“We are expecting more or less 1.3 million people to have registered in the 10-day registration process in the region,” Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes told radio station dxMS in Cotabato City yesterday.

All registration centers across the region will close at 5 p.m. today.

Brillantes, however, said the number could still be reduced once the Comelec has subjected the new voters’ list to an extensive validation to weed out underage registrants and non-ARMM residents who managed to list up.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy has joined the call for an extension of the voters’ listup and setting up of registration sites in non-ARMM areas for voters temporarily staying outside of the region. – With John Unson, Dino Balabo