COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The police and the military are certain Saturday’s bus bombing in Sultan Kudarat’s Isulan town that injured six people was a handiwork of extortionists preying on operators of local public conveyances.
Col. Prudencio Asto, public affairs chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said intelligence units of the 6th Infantry Division are now helping the police validate persistent feedback by informants, among them local officials, that members of an extortion ring pulled off the bombing of a unit of the Husky Bus to force its operator into shelling “protection money” on a regular basis.
The management of Husky Bus has reportedly received extortion letters prior to the attack.
Superintendent Roel Sermese, chief of the Isulan municipal police, said the victims are now being treated for their shrapnel wounds at a local hospital.
The victims were identified as Hapinat Hilmor Bornales, Delfin Jonathan Salmoren, Dolfo Kevin Venus, Catequista Rachel Mayornejo, Salutan Robenson Matias and Sangki Emil Fantilaga.
The bombers planted the improvised explosive device in the undercarriage luggage compartment of the bus and set it off as the vehicle, bound for Gen. Santos City, was about to enter the town proper of Isulan from Maguindanao.
So powerful was the explosion that it also damaged a unit of the Yellow Bus company trailing behind, shattering its windshield and rear panel. Two of the wounded victims were the second bus' driver and conductor.
Sermese said more policemen have been deployed in strategic areas in Isulan to prevent a repeat of the bombing.
The attack was the third in Sultan Kudarat province in seven days.
A powerful IED exploded five days earlier at the commercial district of Tacurong City, only about 10 kilometers southeast of Isulan, causing injuries to three residents.
The incident preceded the grenade attack on the residence in Tacurong City of a re-electionist mayor of a nearby Sultan Kudarat town.
Responding policemen gunned down one of the two men behind the grenade attack for trying to resist arrest, and nabbed another while fleeing from the scene.