Cops tighten security after grenade blast in North Cotabato

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Authorities tightened security around Kabacan, North Cotabato following Sunday’s explosion near a local petroleum station, the town’s third in just four days.

No one was reported hurt in the Sunday night bombing, but Kabacan residents panicked, having witnessed two grenade attacks from between Wednesday afternoon and Saturday night, which injured seven people all, three of them minors.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, presiding chair of the provincial peace and order council, on Monday condemned the bombings and urged the police to identify the culprits and file criminal charges against them.

“Meantime we need to refrain from speculating and spreading intrigues about these incidents while investigators are still trying to identify the suspects their real motives for perpetrating these heinous acts,” Mendoza told reporters via text message.

Senior Superintendent Alex Tagum, North Cotabato’s provincial police director, said they have enlisted the help of sectoral leaders in Kabacan in investigating on the grenade explosions.

Tagum said more uniformed and plainclothes police operatives have been deployed in strategic spots in the municipality as part of the measures meant to forestall a repeat of the bombings.