Military helps Cotabato cops probe school grenade blast

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines – Intelligence units of the Armed Forces’ Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) are now helping the North Cotabato police investigate the grenade and arson attacks last Jan. 12 in a campus of a government-owned school in Arakan town.

The grenade blast injured 25 people, including firemen and policemen, who were trying to put out a fire that struck a dormitory in the campus of the Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology in Barangay Doroloman southwest of the Arakan town proper.

Capt. Alberto Caber, spokesman of the Davao City-based Eastmincom, said in an e-mailed statement that their commander, Lt. Gen. Rainier Cruz III, has directed Army units in North Cotabato to help gather information that could help the provincial police identify those behind the attacks.

Superintendent Rolly Aranza, Arakan police chief, said his men found empty plastic containers with petroleum residue around the gutted dormitory.

Aranza said they are certain that the arsonists were also behind the grenade explosion.

Caber said Cruz has also directed Army units in North Cotabato to seek the help of community leaders in identifying the attackers.