Authorities eye extortion in Maguindanao bus bombing attempt

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 29): Authorities eye extortion in Maguindanao bus bombing attempt

Authorities eye extortion as the motive in the foiled bombing attempt of a bus unit plying the Cotabato City-Gen. Santos City Thursday afternoon in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao.

Prior to the bombing attempt, the bus firm, Husky Bus Company, has received extortion demand from a certain Abu Saddab who heads the group called “ISM,” according to Carlo Manalo, the bus firm’s Cotabato station head.

Manalo said he does not know what “ISM” means but said the group has been asking PHP2 million monthly protection money so the firm’s units will be spared from bombings.

Manalo said he received the demand through text messages an hour after the bombing attempt in Shariff Aguak Thursday morning.

He said the sender sent more messages, threatening to blow up any of its buses near a bridge so it will fall into the river or ambush its units using rifle grenades or set off improvised bombs loaded with 60 mm mortars with two kilos of cut nails inside the bus.

The bus firm’s officer said he reported everything to the local police in Cotabato City and Maguindanao.

Chief Inspector Camerlo Mungkas, Maguindanao police provincial office spokesperson, said civilians at the bus terminal noticed a grey back pack left unattended in one of the terminal benches at about 12:45 p.m.

Mungkas said police were alerted and cordoned off the area until Army bomb experts arrived and successful deactivate the IED.

Col. Lito Sobejana, military’s 601st Infantry Brigade commander, said bomb experts recovered a 60 mm mortar with an attached MK-2 fragmentation grenade, a container with gasoline and black explosive powder with a mobile phone.

Further investigation showed the mobile phone has several missed calls, indicating the bomber tried, but failed, to set off the IED.

Sobejana, quoting witnesses, said a man with a grey backpack boarded the bus in Cotabato City and alighted at Shariff Aguak public terminal at the town’s public market.

He said the man was last seen standing as the Husky bus left for Isulan, Sultan Kudarat en route to Gen. Santos City.

No one has claimed responsibility in the attempt.

Chief Inspector Mungkas has appealed to the public, especially to commuters, to alert the local police any suspicious item in the bus or anyone acting suspiciously.

He also appealed to the bus management to avoid pick-up passengers in between terminals as precautionary measures. He also suggested to bus inspectors and conductors to check all baggages that passengers carry with them.

Husky Bus Company, the lone bus firm plying the Cotabato-Maguindanao-Gen. Santos route has been subjected to several bombings in the past which authorities blamed on extortion gangs.

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