PNP: Sultan Kudarat blast fatality rises to 2

MANILA, Philippines —The Philippine National Police announced that the number of fatalities rose to two, while at least 15 others were wounded when an improvised explosive device went off near a department store in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat last Sunday night.

PNP confirmed that a second teenager died from the bombing.

The bombing occurred at past 7 p.m., about five hours after President Rodrigo Duterte left for an official visit to Israel yesterday afternoon.

'PNP doing more than enough'

The PNP said it is doing "more than enough" to ensure that security threats would not happen.

PNP spokesman Senior Supt. Bong Durana said the PNP is in close coordination with the Armed Forces and other members of the security sectors. 

"We are doing more than enough to make sure that the spoilers could not actualize their treat. We must realize as well that we put up that in any security setup there is always a risk. We cannot totally eliminate the risk," Durana said in a press briefing. 

Durana, however, admitted that there is a need to look into their security systems and intelligence capability "so that as much as possible we will lessen if not totally eradicate this threat from happening."

Asked if the martial law in Mindanao is not working well with the recent incidents of bombings in Sultan Kudarat, the PNP spokesman said the situation might have been worse without the said proclamation.

"You can look at the other way as well. If there is no martial law then maybe that's not the only thing we would experience given the security problems in Mindanao, that's why the government really pursued peace with these different groups. Unfortunately, these are groups within secessionist groups who still believe that it's only through violence that they could achieve political ends," Durana said. 

He added that people who are spreading speculations about the possibility of using the recent bombings to justify the extension of martial law in Mindanao "have the good of the Filipino people farthest from their minds."

PNP chief Oscar Albayalde earlier this morning ordered the relief of Isulan town and Sultan Kudarat provincial police officials in the wake of the said bombing, the second one in just five days. 

He also ordered the relief of the provincial police director of Masbate after a reported blast in a port there on Sunday night.

The recent bombings have led to talk of another extension of martial law in Mindanao, already extended twice to last until December 31 this year.

Martial law was declared in Mindanao in May 2017 in response to Islamic State-inspired terrorists laying siege to Marawi City, the capital of Lanao del Sur. The city was declared liberated in October but martial law has yet to be lifted. — Philstar.com intern Christian De Lano Deiparine