Car bomb attacks in Central Mindanao remain unsolved

COTABATO City, Philippines - The powerful "car bomb" explosion that left eight people dead on Monday in this city was not Central Mindanao's first.

The region’s Muslim and Christian communities first witnessed how destructive a car bomb was when suspected Moro extremists set off one at the Cotabato Airport near the Philippine Army’s Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao on February 2003.

Authorities were convinced that the bombing, which injured more than 20 people, was an apparent retaliation for the military’s takeover of the Buliok Complex, at the border of the Pikit, North Cotabato and Maguindanao’s Pagalungan town, from occupation by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The liberation of the Buliok Complex from MILF control in February 2003 by combined units of the Army and the Philippine Marines forced the MILF’s founder, Eygptian-trained cleric Imam Salamat Hashim, to vacate his residence in the area and relocate to Butig, Lanao del Sur, where he eventually died several months later due to a heart ailment.

The bombers used a multi-cab vehicle in the Cotabato Airport bombing.

The vehicle, which was loaded with more than a dozen mortar projectiles, was parked beside an eatery and was set off remotedly using a mobile phone.

So powerful was the blast that it shattered the glass panes of the airport’s terminal building, destroyed its ceiling, and triggered a fire that razed commercial establishments near the spot where the car bomb went off.

Another car bomb explosion rocked Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao in June 25, 2005, which left eight people dead and injured 16 others.

The Shariff Aguak bombing apparently targeted a convoy led by then Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr.

Ampatuan, who was riding a bulletproof vehicle, survived the attacked unscathed, but eight others, who were riding separate vehicles trailing behind, were killed in the explosion.

A multi-cab laden with mortar projectiles rigged with an improvised blasting mechanism and parked along the highway where Ampatuan’s convoy passed through was used in the attack.

An irate Ampatuan, who maintained a 700-member private militia during his “political heyday,” was quick to retaliate on MILF forces encamped near his farm in Bagong District in Shariff Aguak, provoking a series of encounters that waned only when national government officials intervened.

Ampatuan’s eldest and most favorite son, Datu Saudi, and 17 companions were killed in December 23, 2002 when a home-made explosive, rigged inside a tricycle parked along a road at the town proper of Datu Piang, exploded just as they were passing by on foot, from two blocks away where they attended a “kanduli,” a traditional prayer rite, for relative who died two days earlier.

There have been more than a dozen deadly bombings in Central Mindanao were perpetrators used bomb-laden motorcycles, concealing explosives inside empty fuel talks, or underneath the bikes’ seats.

Monday’s explosion of a car bomb along a stretch of the Sinsuat Avenue was preceded by last year’s roadside bombing, also involving a car bomb, in Tacurong City, which targeted a convoy carrying provincial officials led by Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu

A bystander and a member of the provincial board, Datu Russman Sinsuat, were killed in the incident.

Rusman’s son, Junior, lost a leg in the bombing. He was elected as member of the Maguindanao provincial board during the May 13 local elections.

All of the bombings that struck the region before Monday’s deadly car bomb attacked remained unsolved.