Police and Army checkpoints reactivated in Lanao Sur, Maguindanao following Marawi bombing

From the Philippine News Agency (Nov 29): Police and Army checkpoints reactivated in Lanao Sur, Maguindanao following Marawi bombing

Police officials across Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao have been placed on heightened alert with government forces putting up checkpoints following the roadside bombing of a convoy of soldiers and Presidential Security Group (PSG) in Marawi City Tuesday.

"It was a diversionary tactic, we are not taking any chances," Senior Agustin Tello, Lanao del Sur police provincial director, said.

Seven members of elite presidential guards and two Army troopers were injured, two of them critically, when a roadside improvised explosive device was set off by suspected sympathizers of the Maute terrorist group in Barangay Matampay, an uphill road leading to Marawi City from Iligan City at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Colonel Gene Ponio, 103rd Army deputy brigade commander, said the bomb attack was purely harassment aimed at inflicting injuries to military personnel, not necessarily the PSG.

After the blast, about five men who positioned themselves in an elevated part of the zigsag road opened fire. They quickly fled when military and PSG personnel returned fire.

Supt. Tello said police special forces are helping the military in hunting down the suspects.

Chief Supt. Agripino Javier, police regional director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), also directed all police provincial directors in the region to step up security patrol.

Checkpoints in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur that President Rodrigo Duterte ordered removed last month were activated as part of preventive measures.

Tello and Ponio both believed the attack was carried by supporters or sympathizers of Maute local terrorist group that the Army had been pounding with mortars and howitzers in Buti town, about 50 kilometers south of Marawi City.

President Duterte said the roadside bombing will not stop him from going to Marawi City on Wednesday.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=944344