Another bus bombed in Sultan Kudarat province

By Ronron
July 18, 2007

Another passenger bus in Mindanao was bombed on Wednesday by suspected members of an extortion group, leaving two persons hurt, police said.

Supt. Joel Limson, chief of the Tacurong City Police, said in a phone interview that a unit of the Yellow Bus Line was blown off at around 12:10 pm yesterday while it was inside the public bus terminal of said city in Sultan Kudarat province, making a stopover.

The bus came from Isulan town in the same province, and was heading to Koronadal City in South Cotabato.

Limson said the improvised explosive device (IED) was placed at the rear portion of the bus, damaging that part. Recovered initially from the crime scene, he said, are parts of a mobile phone.

He said the two slightly injured persons were among the passengers about to disembark.

“This is more of an extortion case because the management has been receiving demands from some unidentified suspects. There is a possibility that the suspects belong to the same group that has been extorting the Weena Bus company,” Limson said in Filipino.

Limson said they are still gathering information to ascertain the identity of the person who left the IED.

Asked if they will apply the Anti-Terrorism Law in this case, Limson said: “We’ll see because the new is still very new.”

The law, which covers crimes involving destruction that sow and create widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace in order that the government will give in to an unlawful demand, took effect last July 15.

The latest bus bombing in Mindanao also involved a Yellow Bus Line unit. The incident happened last July 7 in Koronadal City. Less than two months before that, two buses – one in Cotabato City and one in Davao del Sur – were also blown off, killing eight people and wounding 18 others.

Prior to those incidents, a bus was bombed in May in Matalam, North Cotabato, hurting 10 people, and another one in Cotabato City, killing at least one person and wounding over 30 others.

The suspects allegedly belong to the Alkhobar extortion group./DMS