Town vice-mayor, pa summoned over bombing try

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines  --- The provincial prosecutor on Friday summoned key members of the Ampatuan clan to shed light on their alleged involvement in a recent bombing attempt in Shariff Aguak town.

Sr. Insp. Archie Pajaro, chief of the Shariff Aguak municipal police, said Akmad Ampatuan and his son, Marouf, were asked to answer for allegations by witnesses that they masterminded the planting of a home-made bomb along the entrance to the Sharif Aguak municipal government compound.

The younger Ampatuan is the incumbent vice mayor of Shariff Aguak, whose mayor is Zahara Upam-Ampatuan.

The improvised explosive device, fashioned from a live mortar round rigged with a battery-operated blasting mechanism, was found by passersby on May 9 and was promptly defused by responding Army bomb experts.

The two Ampatuans, along with their alleged accomplices, former Shariff Aguak municipal administrator Casmir Ampatuan, Pendatun Ampatuan, Abbi Aguak, and former provincial board member Zainudin Abutazil, have all been served with subpoenas signed by Maguindanao provincial prosecutor Tocod Ronda, according to Pajaro.

The suspects are related to jailed former Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., who is being prosecuted in connection with the Nov. 23, 2009 “Maguindanao Massacre,” which left 58 people dead, more than 30 of them journalists.

The incumbent mayor of Shariff Aguak is a daughter-in-law of the detained former governor.

The gate of the Shariff Aguak local government compound is not far from the spot where a powerful car bomb went off in July 2005, set off using a mobile phone, while the convoy of the now incarcerated Ampatuan clan patriarch was passing by. The explosion killed seven people and injured more than 10 others.