7 hurt in Cotabato blasts

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Seven were hurt late Saturday in separate grenade attacks in Cotabato City and in the troubled Kabacan town in North Cotabato province.

The police and military said there seemed no connection between the two incidents.

Police Superintendent Bernard Tayong, spokesperson of the North Cotabato police, said the Kabacan bombing left five villagers injured.

The victims, Rosalie Parenas, 36, Berlie Baluyot, 46, and minors Gerardo Moya, Johaina Alon and John Opena, are now undergoing medication at a hospital.

Local officials said two men riding a motorcycle together perpetrated the attack.

One of the two men hurled the fragmentation at the victims, then milling at one side of Malvar Street near the Kabacan municipal market, and sped away as the explosive went off.

Saturday night’s grenade blast in Kabacan was the second in just three days.

A four-year-old child was slightly injured when a fragmentation grenade exploded Wednesday near a roadside Army detachment also near the town proper of Kabacan, home to mixed Muslim and Christian settlers.

The grenade explosion near the intersection of Sinsuat Avenue and Rosales Street in Cotabato City slightly injured two residents, initial police reports said.

The grenade exploded near two vehicles in transit, one a double cab light truck and the other, a ¾ tonner Army 4x4 vehicle carrying soldiers.

Witnesses said two suspicious-looking men were seen near the spot before the blast, which caused panic among folks in the surroundings and stranded dozens of vehicles.