Village elder foils bomb plot

PIGCAWAYAN, North Cotabato - A village elder on Tuesday prevented an attempt by suspected Moro bandits to set off a powerful roadside bomb along an isolated portion here of the Cotabato-Davao Highway.

Farmer Godofredo Piala, a community leader in Barangay Manuangan here, managed to immediately report to a nearby police detachment the presence of a suspicious box two men had left along the thoroughfare, enabling bomb experts to examine and promptly defuse its explosive content.

The box contained a live artillery projectile rigged with an improvised electrical contraption that can trigger an explosion using a mobile phone.

Captain Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said Piala saw two men riding a motorcycle together leave the box containing the home-made bomb on the grassy side of the highway.

Petinglay said the suspects hurriedly left riding their motorcycle as Piala approached to check on them.

Piala immediately sought the help of policemen guarding a roadside detachment nearby when he noticed the electrical wires dangling at one side of the box containing the bomb.

Senior Inspector Donald Cabigas, chief of the Pigcawayan municipal police, said investigators are still trying to determine the identities of the two men behind the botched bombing attempt.

Petinglay said Army intelligence operatives are now helping the Pigcawayan municipal police investigate on the incident.