4 injured in Tacurong grenade blast

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Four people were injured when two men riding a motorcycle in tandem hurled a fragmentation grenade at a business establishment in Tacurong City Wednesday, the second explosion to rock Central Mindanao in three days.

Senior Supt. Rolen Balquin, provincial police director of Sultan Kudarat, said investigators are still trying to determine the identities of the bombers behind the grenade attack on a buy and sell outlet for agricultural products owned by businessman Rasul Delna.

Delna was himself wounded in the blast.

Three others, Shemmy Buisan, Rudy Sabang and a bystander identified only as Lala, also sustained shrapnel wounds and were rushed to different hospitals for medication.

One of two men riding a motorcycle that pulled over at one spot of the Tacurong City public market tossed the grenade at the entrance of Delna’s business establishment, according to witnesses.

Balquin said investigators are still looking into the possibility that the grenade attack was aimed at intimidating Delna and other merchants in the surroundings to shell out protection money.

He said he is convinced that the incident has got nothing to do with the Oct. 15 crafting by the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front of the framework agreement seeking the establishment of an MILF-led  Bangsamoro political entity.

The bombing came just three days after five market goers were injured in an explosion at the public market of the supposedly peaceful Tantangan town in South Cotabato, some 20 kilometers south of Tacurong City.

Chief Inspector Dario Caladrana, chief of the Tantangan municipal police, said they are still investigating on the incident.

Caladrana said that investigators still have no solid clues on who could have planted an improvised explosive device at the public market and the real motive for the attack.

Local officials said there are text messages circulating after the bombing, purporting that extortionists were responsible for the attack.

Extortion gangs operating in Central Mindanao are known for their style of perpetrating bomb attacks to intimidate their prospective victims and force them into shelling out “protection money” regularly.

The IED blast at the Tantangan public market blast left five people wounded, namely Rogelio Olarte, 59, and Almeda Pabistan, 31, and three minors.

The Region 12 police command has deployed more policemen in strategic locations in Tantangan, a supposedly peaceful town, to prevent a repeat of the bombing.