2 bomb explosions hit Pikit

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines  --- Two bomb explosions rocked the town proper of Pikit early Monday, forcing policemen to block a stretch of a national highway straddling through the scene, stranding hundreds of commuters for almost five hours.

Responding policemen and Army bomb experts managed to defuse the third improvised explosive device bystanders found several minutes later near the spot where the two IEDs went off.

Senior Inspector Jojie Nicolas, chief of the Pikit municipal police, said no one was hurt in the twin explosions, but the incident sparked panic in the area.

The first IED exploded near a still unfinished government-funded gymnasium, several meters along a portion of the Cotabato-Davao Highway.

The other IED, planted several meters away, went off just as responding policemen and combatants of the Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion arrived to clear the scene.

“Fortunately, no one from among the soldiers and police investigators inspecting the scene got hurt," Nicolas said.

The Pikit municipal police closed the highway to traffic for almost five hours while bomb experts searched for secondary explosives in the surroundings.

Captain Tony Bulao, spokesman of the Army’s 602rd Brigade, which has jurisdiction over military units in Pikit and nearby towns, said their civilian intelligence operatives are now helping the police investigate on the bomb explosions.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, Bulao said.

He said soldiers were deployed along the highway to ensure the safety of commuters and motorists.

Nicolas said investigators are still clueless on the identity of the bombers  and the motive for the attack.

The bombings in Pikit were preceded by Friday night’s attempt by suspected members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) to set off a powerful IED near the municipal government compound in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao.

Responding military ordnance operatives managed to promptly defuse the improvised explosive device, fashioned from a live B-40 anti-tank rocket and a Mark II fragmentation grenade rigged with a battery-operated blasting mechanism that can be activated from a distance using a mobile phone.

Col. Jener Del Rosario, commanding officer of the Philippine Army’s 1st Mechanized Brigade, said the IED was packed with fragments of cast iron with jagged edges, mixed with tiny pieces of cut iron bars.

Army and police intelligence sources said the bombing attempt was an apparent retaliation for the military’s capture Friday morning of a BIFF member, Datu Naut Ali Sailila, during a brief encounter in nearby Barangay Sapakan in Rajah Buayan town, also in Maguindanao.