A powerful improvised explosive device (IED) fashioned from an 81-mm mortar projectile went off along the highway between the neighboring towns of Pagalungan, Maguindanao and Pikit, North Cotabato around 9:15 a.m. today.
The explosion took place about seven hours after another IED, also fashioned from an 81-mm mortar, was recovered in Poblacion, Midsayap in North Cotabato, in front of a vulcanizing shop just a few feet away from the national road.
Inspector Sulayman Bakal, chief of Pagalungan Police, said the explosion was so loud that it was heard around 400 meters away from his station.
The blast site, he said, is only 100 meters away from the Pagalungan Bridge, one of the oldest structures built along the Maguindanao-Cotabato highway.
The bridge connects the towns of Pagalungan and Datu Montawal in Maguindanao to North Cotabato towns.
Sulayman hinted the roadside blast might have something to do with the ongoing armed fighting between the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM), a breakaway group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and the government troops.
No one, though, was reported hurt during the blast.
The Pagalungan explosion, reports from the police said, was the second since the fighting erupted on Monday.
Around 12:45 a.m. Monday, a grenade exploded at a paramilitary detachment in Pikit, wounding four CAFGU members and a civilian.
'No reason to fear'
Sr. Supt. Cornelio Salinas, provincial director of North Cotabato PNP, believed another group could be behind the series of roadside blasts along the Maguindanao-Cotabato highway.
“This group, which is not in any way connected to the ongoing fighting, is out to wreak havoc and fear among residents of North Cotabato,” said Salinas.
He, however, refused to identify the group.
Despite the blasts, the police and Army personnel manning the Maguindanao-Cotabato highway refused to close the road for traffic.
“There is no reason to fear. We have no reason to close the highway. We just want people in the community to be vigilant, to be extra-careful while we’re experiencing this situation,” said Salinas.
He assured the commuting public that the police in North Cotabato, including other law enforcement agencies and Army personnel, are always “on alert”’ to secure the safety of the commuters, government installations, and the community.
Mass evacuation and displacement
The fighting, which started Monday, resulted in the massive displacement of residents from the towns of Datu Saudi, Ampatuan, Guindulungan, and Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao, and the towns of Midsayap, Aleosan, and Pikit in North Cotabato.
Data from the Philippine Red Cross-Cotabato chapter said that 1,023 families from Datu Saudi, most of them from the indigenous peoples’ communities, were displaced.
The internal refugees are temporarily housed in two evacuation centers.
At least 693 families coming from Barangays Iginagampong, Maitumaig, Sitio Lapitus, and Sitio Bai are housed temporarily at Datu Pendililang Piang Elementary School, while 330 families from Barangays Babingi and Salvo sought refuge in the municipal covered court in the Poblacion, the PRC said.
The PRC Cotabato also recorded at least 689 internally-displaced families in Barangays Poblacion and Dalingaoen in Pikit.
As this developed, Secretary Teresita Deles of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), assured war victims and residents from the affected provinces that government forces are “ready” for necessary defensive actions to protect and ensure their welfare should the perpetrators launch attacks again.
Deles, in a statement issued to media, said that the BIFM is not part of the MILF, and “thus, not covered by any ceasefire agreement.”
“This act of aggression of the BIFM is meant to derail the peace process between the government and the MILF. We assure the public that these incidents will not affect the substantial gains that we have carefully and persistently built with our counterparts, foremost of which, is the ceasefire mechanism that continues to hold on the ground and kept the peace for our communities,” said Deles. – BM, GMA News
source: gmanetwork.com
