MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - The Army’s 6th Infantry Division and its component units on Friday tightened security in Shariff Aguak town following Thursday’s attempt to bomb a local overland terminal.
A vigilant civilian foiled the attempt to bomb the municipal terminal using a powerful improvised explosive device (IED).
The mayor of Shariff Aguak, Marop Ampatuan, ordered the local police to guard the municipal terminal and market to preclude bomb attacks.
Army bomb experts managed to promptly deactivate the powerful IED which a resident found at one side of the terminal.
The IED was fashioned from 60 millimeter mortar projectiles attached to a fragmentation grenade rigged with a blasting mechanism that can be activated from a distance using mobile phone.
Witnesses had told police probers a man left the bag in the terminal, after alighting from a Husky Bus bound to Cotabato City from Isulan town in Sultan Kudarat province.
No one can tell however if the suspect boarded the same bus after leaving the bag containing the bomb at the western wing of the terminal.
There have been more than a dozen IED attacks in Shariff Aguak in the past 12 months.