Soldier killed, 3 more hurt in Maguindanao roadside bombing

MAGUINDANAO - A soldier was killed while three others, one of them a lieutenant, were badly injured when members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) set off a roadside bomb in a secluded stretch of a farm-to-market road in Datu Unsay town, Thursday.

Coming from a humanitarian outreach mission, members of the Philippine Army’s 45th Infantry Battalion were on their way to their battalion headquarters when bandits set off the improvised explosive device as their truck was passing by a secluded area in Datu Unsay.

Lt. Col. Donald Hongitan, commanding officer of the 45th IB, said Pfc. Jesus Tabije died from multiple shrapnel wounds.

Tabije's injured companions, 1Lt. Lemuel Manicdo, Sgt. Pio Himoldang, and Cpl. Joel Canceran, are now confined in a hospital, undergoing medication.

Responding Army bomb experts said the bomb was set off from a distance with a mobile phone.

The bomb's explosion crippled the Army's light 4x4 truck that was carrying the soldiers.

Last month, two soldiers were also killed and five others were injured in a roadside bombing in Barangay Meta, also in Datu Unsay.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the roadside bombings were retaliations by the BIFF for the heavy loses it suffered in recent military operations that resulted to the restoration of government control over its main enclave in Barangay Ganta at the border of Maguindanao’s Datu Piang and Saidona Mustapha towns.