Troops deployed to Maguindanao town

SULTAN MASTURA, Maguindanao: Police and military personnel have been deployed to this town eight days before the national and local elections following a series of bomb attacks on seven public elementary schools last week.

The Philippine Army’s 603rd Infantry Brigade commander, Col. Earl Badiao, said a company-sized group of soldiers from the 37th Infantry Battalion backed by the Provincial Public Safety Battalion (PPSB) have been deployed in Sultan Mastura’s 13 villages to ensure that next Monday’s synchronized elections would be peaceful and orderly.