Cops: Midsayap bombing in response to anti-drug trafficking, motorcycle theft ops

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Investigators said the bombing that left a bystander dead and injured seven others Monday night in Midsayap public market could be related to the intensified campaign by local authorities against drug trafficking and motorcycle theft.

One of the eight people injured in the blast, Charles Monsanto Guhitia, succumbed Tuesday night while being treated for shrapnel wounds.

Key members of the Midsayap municipal peace and order council said motorcycle thieves, or local peddlers of methampetamine hydrochloride (shabu), could be behind the grenade attack at the public market, which also caused panic among residents in surrounding villages.

Supt. Reinante Delos Santos, chief of the Midsayap municipal police, said investigators are now pursuing vital leads on the incident.

Delos Santos, who declined to elaborate, hinted that there are 'concerned citizens' helping investigators determine the identities of the bombers, and establish the real motive for the attack.

He said there are indications that the grenade attack was perpetrated by a criminal gang dislodged by the renewed crackdown by the Midsayap local government, the police and Army units in the municipality.

Witnesses saw one of two men riding a motorcycle together hurl a grenade at the fish stalls of the Midsayap market and hurriedly escaped seconds before a powerful blast ripped through the spot where the explosive landed.

The seven people injured in the explosion, Kryza Jane Torrejas, 13, Virginia Cablas, 56, Quintin Trastisa, 32, Ann Pocapotan, 14, Paula Angelie Masicampo, 20, Rodrigo Cataytay Jr, 31, and Bernie Cuerpo, 22, are now confined at different hospitals.