Police clueless who's behind Mlang bombing
NORTH COTABATO -- Local officials on Thursday urged the police to expedite the probe
on Wednesday’s bombing in Mlang town in west of the province that left a
resident dead and injured 35 others.
Police and
Army investigators are still clueless on who could have set off the improvised
explosive device at the entrance of Mlangpublic market, causing the death
of a 28-year-old villager, Christine Salo, of Barangay Bialong.
North Cotabato
Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, chair of the multi-sectoral provincial peace and
order council, condemned the bombing and branded the atrocity an acts of barbarism and contrary to teachings of all religions.
The bombing
was the second in Mlang in just four weeks. Still unidentified bombers blasted
an IED near a billiard hall in the town center last November 23, killing three bystanders and wounding 22 others.
Once again,
we have witnessed a barbaric by people trying to sabotage our domestic peace
and development initiatives intended to improve the lives of the Muslim,
Christian and lumad sectors in the province,” the governor said.
Mendoza said
the provincial health office, which is under her ministerial control, is now
helping provide for the medical needs of the people injured in the latest
bombing in Mlang.
The town, home
to mixed Muslim and Christian residents, is near the vast Liguasan Delta, a
known lair of criminal gangs and terrorists.
The latest
bombing came after policemen arrested somewhere in the municipality one of the
alleged suspect in the November 23 bombing in the area, which remained
unsolved.
Mlang’s
municipal mayor, Joselito Piñol, said he is thankful to barangay officials, the
local religious leaders and the town’s Muslim and Christian elders for helping
facilitate the evacuation to different hospitals of the 35 people injured in
Wednesday's IED attack.
After the
blast, Piñol immediately convened the town’s peace and order council as well as
all village officials to help in monitoring and prevent similar incident in the
future.