Guv says life in North Cotabato normal despite bombings

KIDAPAWAN City, Philippines - The North Cotabato provincial peace and order council (PPOC) has imposed tight security measures throughout province to prevent more bombings.

The province has been hit by three powerful explosions in just seven days.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, presiding chair of the PPOC, said the provincial government, the police and the military remain in control of the situation despite the bombing incidents.

"We are on top of the situation and normalcy is intact," Mendoza said.

Mendoza said the lives of local residents, including those in the provincial capital, Kidapawan City, are just as normal too.

Suspected Moro bandits bombed two power relay pylons of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines in two North Cotabato towns early this week, causing outage in many parts of Central Mindanao, including all of the 37 barangays in Cotabato City.

Another bomb explosion rocked the public market of Kabacan, located in southwest of North Cotabato, before dawn Tuesday, less than an hour after soldiers and policemen had cleared and cordoned the spot where the improvised explosive was found by a vigilant vendor.

Authorities had also foiled two separate bombing attempts in North Cotabato’s adjoining Pigcawayan and Midsayap towns this week.

Mendoza said local government units in the province and the more than 40 barangay governments in Kidapawan City are helping the police and the military prevent a repeat of the bombing incidents.

Mendoza said she is thankful to the people whose vigilance prevented the attempts this week to set off a roadside bomb along a national highway in Barangay Manuangan in Pigcawayan, and in Midsayap.

The explosives were found by local residents, enabling Army and police bomb experts to dispose them off promptly.