COTABATO CITY: Vigilant passersby foiled on Wednesday an attempt by suspected members of bandit group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) to set off a powerful roadside bomb in Maguindanao’s Guindulungan town.
Co Prudencio Asto, public affairs chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said a responding military bomb disposal team managed to deactivate the improvised explosive device (IED) after having been alerted by villagers.
The IED was fashioned from a live 105 Howitzer cannon shell rigged with an improvised, battery-operated blasting mechanism attached to a mobile phone.
Alert civilians helped prevent what could be a bloody morning yesterday in conflict affected town in Maguindanao when they quickly alerted government soldiers, the Army here said.
A 105-artillery round has an effective explosion radius impact of about a hundred meters.
“That would have killed dozens of passengers of any passenger vehicle passing by,” Asto said.
The roadside bomb was discovered by farmers, who informed the nearby Army detachment about the bomb.
The military said that the roadside bomb could have been planted by members of the BIFF, based on reports from the villagers.
More than 20,000 people were displaced last August in week-long forays by the BIFF in five Maguindanao towns, where they attacked Army positions, plundered and burned down villages.
The attacks, which left more than 20 soldiers and civilians dead, waned only two weeks later after soldiers launched counter-offensives and took over three adjoining BIFF enclaves not far from the five affected towns.
The Philippine Star
