1 killed, 17 hurt in Philippine blast
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One person was killed and 17 wounded when a bomb exploded near the gates of an elementary school in the southern Philippines, the military said yesterday.
The blast occurred late Sunday in Kabacan town in North Cotabato province, 960 kilometres south of Manila, where two other explosive devices were found near the elementary school, said army spokeswoman Captain Jo-Ann Petinglay. The other homemade bombs were found at a pedestrian overpass near thes chool, she said.
Authorities suspect the bombing was the handiwork of militants opposed to a peace deal forged between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim rebel group, in the southern region of Mindanao.
“All fingers point to the BIFF,” said Colonel Dickson Hermoso, an army spokesman, referring to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, which broke away from the MILF in 2008. Under the peace deal signed in March, a new Muslim autonomous entity in the southern region of Mindanao would be established by 2016 through a basic law to be passed by Congress and ratified in a plebiscite. It would share political power with the central government and have substantial control over natural resources and revenues generated in Mindanao, where the conflict has killed more than 100,000 and displaced millions.
