Investigators look for clues in the wreckage a day after a car bomb explosion in Cotabato City killed eight persons and woundd 30 others. (photo by Mark Navales, AFP)
Cotabato City Mayor Japal Guiani Jr. said Tuesday Monday’s car bomb that killed eight persons and wounded 30 others was set off by crime organizations linked to “politicians” out to get him and his sister, city administrator Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi.
The Philippine National Police, on the other hand, proffered another possible angle, that the attack could have been a case of “bomb-for-hire.”
“We could look at the possibility kung bakit bomb ang ginamit (why a bomb was used) instead of ambush type. Instead of gun-for-hire, baka (it may have been a) bomb-for-hire,” PNP spokesman Senior Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac said.
The powerful explosion barely missed Sayadi, whose bulletproof vehicle had just passed the vehicle where the bomb was planted when it went off.
Two of her security aides, in another vehicle following her, were killed in the blast.
Guiani said the perpetrators “have already been identified and may mga (there are) witnesses … even the mastermind is already identified,” adding he had documents he intended to turn over to authorities.
Asked who the mastermind was, Guiani replied: “These are big people, wala namang big people kundi mga politicians ‘di ba (there are no other big people but politicians right)? So I would say that these are private armed groups na ang motive e kung ano-ano na. Makakalaban mo ‘yung masasamang loob. Kung titingnan mo for the past years wala nang kidnapping ang Cotabato City, so I think this is one of the reasons na itong grupo na ito ay nagagalit sa amin (whose motives are diverse. You will go up against the criminals. If you see for the past years there have been no kidnappings in Cotabato City, so I think this is one of the reasons this group is angry at us).”
Region 12 police director, Chief Superintendent Charles Calima reiterated that Sayadi was the likely target of the attack, noting: “Unang-una bakit malakas ‘yung explosion? Dahil nga du’n sa ang ginagamit ng target nila ay bulletproof na sasakyan (First of all, why was the explosion so powerful? Precisely because the target was in a bulletproof vehicle).”
However, he dismissed the notion that the attack was linked to recent security warnings by several Western countries, particularly the US, which have shut down their embassies in the Middle East because of threats Al Qaeda was poised to strike.
The Cotabato explosion happened 10 days after a bomb went off at a popular bar in Cagayan de Oro City, killing eight persons and wounding more than 40 others.
Sindac said the Cotabato blast “could be a new modus (operandi)” of hired assassins, “especially pag ‘yung (especially if the) subject or target ay nakasakay sa isang (is riding a) bulletproof vehicle.”
Authorities have yet to say what the Cotabato bomb was made of.
The explosion was so powerful it wrecked several vehicles and set fire to buildings at the blast site along busy Sinsuat Avenue.
On Tuesday, investigators returned to the scene of the bombing to gather more evidence.
Traffic enforcers on duty at the time of the attack said they thought an electric transformer had exploded until they saw a huge fire.
Abdulmaguid Andong, who heads the city’s traffic enforcers, said he realized it ewas an attack only when he saw “nakabulagta na yung dalawang tao na nakasakay sa motor tapos may nagsisigawan na (two men riding a motorcycle sprawled on the ground as the screaming started).”
Andong said aside from trying to seek help from motorists who were spared from the explosion to get the victims to hospitals, he also had to warn people to get off the streets “kasi alam po natin sa bomba baka merong (because we know that in bombings there could be a) secondary explosion.”
Of the 30 injured in the explosion, only eight are still confined at the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center, among these a nurse who is seven months pregnant and who would allow herself to be identified only as “Cookie.”
Cookie sustained burns and shrapnel wounds but said that, despite the pain of her injuries, the child she is carrying is safe.
“Sa ulo at saka sa paa niya ... kahapon kasi galing sila ng bahay so ang balak nila mag-grocery sila so ‘yun na, pagdating nila ng grocery pumutok na ‘yung bomba (Her wounds are in the head and legs … yesterday they left the house to buy groceries so, when they reached the grocery, the bomb exploded),” said Cookie’s cousin, Alsaima Ulama.
Another survivor, Exequiel Almiroda, took himself to the hospital after the explosion but has yet to undergo surgery to remove the shrapnel in his body.
He said he saw blood pouring from his back and then felt the pain.
“Nataranta ako (pero) wala naman magtulong doon (kaya) nagtakbo na lang ako papunta ng hospital (I got scared but no one would help me so I ran to the hospital),” he said.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/68069/cotabato-blast--mayor-sees-crime-rings-linked-to-politicians-pnp-eyes-bomb-for-hire
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