Following a series of bombings in Cagayan de Oro, North Cotabato and Maguindanao over the weekend, the Palace on Monday ordered intelligence officials to work double time to thwart future attacks.
“The intelligence (community) is doing their work,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said, without providing further details.
On Friday evening, a bomb rocked a popular restaurant in Cagayan de Oro that left eight people dead and wounded more than 40 others.
Computerized facial sketch of three bomb suspects
National police chief Gen. Alan Purisima said Monday they had three suspects in the bombing, and showed journalists computer-generated composites of the three based on witness accounts and images captured on closed-circuit TV cameras.
Purisima said it was unclear what the motive was, but Lacierda said they could not rule out that the blast was related to other attacks in Mindanao.
On Saturday, the Lintukan Bridge connecting Maguindanao and Cotabato City was bombed for the second time this month.
The military said it suspects the attack was carried out by members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, an armed group that broke away from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
In North Cotabato, an improvised bomb also rocked the administration building of the University of Southern Mindanao Sunday evening.
Military and police bomb experts recovered fragments of the bomb, which they said may have been fashioned from an 81 mm mortar.
At his press conference, Purisima said police on the island were ordered to step up security, particularly in populated areas.
Purisima also said they would look into possible lapses in intelligence that allowed the attacks to occur.
A week before the blast, the United States, Australia and Canada issued travel advisories to their citizens against travel to Mindanao because of persistent threats of terrorism.
Purisima said they also wanted to know if such warnings were taken seriously by local police.
Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, who comes from Cagayan de Oro, urged the police to arrest those responsible for the blast.
Another Mindanao senator, Teofisto Guingona III, said he was alarmed by the deteriorating peace and order situation on the island.
Both Pimentel and Guingona are administration senators.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte had earlier said there had been speculations that the Cagayan de Oro attack was aimed at derailing the government’s peace talks with the MILF.
http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/07/30/more-attacks-in-mindanao-feared-security-stepped-up/
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