Two blasts rock Cotabato province - police

From GMA News (Jan 15): Two blasts rock Cotabato province - police

KIDAPAWAN CITY — Two blasts rocked Cotabato province on Thursday evening but there were no reported casualties, police officials said. Around 10:30 p.m., an improvised explosive device (IED) went off beside the national highway at Purok Mirasol in Barangay Polomoguen, Midsayap. Another explosion occurred Aleosan town of shortly before midnight.

Superintendent Bernard Tayong, Cotabato PNP spokesperson, said no one was hurt in the blasts.

The incidents, however, caused panic among residents in the areas.

Tayong disclosed that the IED that went off in Midsayap contained blasting caps, gunpowder and at least a kilo of nails.

Superintendent Guilbert Tuzon, Midsayap chief of police, could not ascertain if the blast was intented to sabotage the Halad Festival as celebration of the feast of Sto. Niño on Sunday.

“Perhaps the strict security implemented in Midsayap prompted the suspects to abandon the explosive beside the highway,” Tuzon told reporters.

Meantime, a steel tower of the National Grid Corporation in the Philippines (NGCP) in Aleosan was also bombed after the explosion in Midsayap.

Reports reaching the North Cotabato Police Office said the explosion toppled the steel tower which resulted in power fluctuation in some areas in Cotabato's first congressional district.

Responding bomb squad also recovered another unexploded IED near the tower. As of posting time, no one has claimed responsibility for the incidents.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/551347/news/regions/two-blasts-rock-cotabato-province-police