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ZAMBOANGA CITY: Police and military on Friday tightened security in
the southern Philippines following a bombing of a commuter bus that
killed one passenger and wounded at least 35 others in Digos City in
Davao del Sur province.
Police said one of the injured in the blast died
on Friday and that at least 35 people were injured in the attack
believed carried out by the al-Khobar gang, blamed for the spate of
bombings and extortion activities in Mindanao.
Police is investigating reports that a woman who
posed as a passenger was behind Thursday attack on the bus owned by
the family of Mayor Rey Uy, of Tagum City.
Three days before the bombing, Uy said
unidentified men demanded P500, 000 from his bus firm and P50,000
every month as protection money. Uy said the men also threatened to
bomb his buses if he will not pay up.
“Most of the members of this group were
trained by Jemaah Islamiah terrorists,” noted Lt. Col. Kurt
Decapia.
The recent bombings came following three
separate blasts in the city and the nearby Sarangani late last week.
Chief Supt. Felizardo Serapio Jr., police
director for Central Mindanao, has tagged the group of
extortionists and the New People’s Army (NPA) as behind the
attack.
“These recent explosions are not a handiwork
of terror groups but of extortionist and NPA guerillas who wanted to
rescue from detention a high-ranking communist rebel named as a
certain Jeramil Benedicto alias commander Warren who led an NPA band
in the abduction of former vice-mayor in Sarangani during the
previous elections.
-- Al Jacinto and Isagani Palma
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