6 Maguindanao schools bombed

Comelec loses polling centers in simultaneous attacks

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines – Panicked residents fled as grenades and anti-tank rockets were fired at six school buildings to be used as polling precincts in near-simultaneous attacks before dawn Wednesday.

The assailants shot up the school buildings with M-16 rifles as they fled, barangay officials told journalists. No injuries were reported.

As of last night, police had no clues on the identities of the perpetrators who appeared to have used shoulder-fired 40-millimeter grenade projectiles and anti-tank rockets in the attacks in different barangays in Sultan Mastura town here, said municipal police chief Senior Insp. Wendylyn Banico.

No group has come forward to claim responsibility for the attacks.

Reacting to the incident, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said voters assigned at the affected schools would likely be made to vote at other schools or polling precincts.

Damaged in the attacks were classrooms at the Tapayan Central School, Dagurungan Elementary School, Tuka Elementary School, Darping Elementary School, Tareken Primary School and Simuay Seashore Elementary School.

Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) ordered the region’s education secretary John Magno to send teams to the affected schools to determine what would be needed to hasten the repair of the damaged classrooms.

Hataman said he has also ordered ARMM police director Chief Supt. Ronald Estilles to assign intelligence agents to help the Sultan Mastura municipal police investigate the incident.

Estilles said Sultan Mastura police and the 37th Infantry Battalion proceeded at once to the schools after the attacks.

Based on initial investigation, unidentified men strafed the concrete wall of the computer building of the Tapayan Elementary School. An explosion in Tuka Elementary School, Barangay Tuka caused damage to two doors of classrooms, roof, ceiling and glass windows. A blast near one of the doors left a hole 0.47 meter wide and 0.20 meter deep.

“Likewise, the explosion in Dagurungan Elementary School, Barangay Dagurungan resulted in damage to two doors of the classrooms, roof, ceiling and glass windows with a crater .20 meter in diameter and .09 meter depth,” he added.

In Darping Elementary School in Barangay Macabiso, Estilles said the explosion was caused by a grenade, a conclusion based on the recovery at the site of a safety lever.

Investigators said the grenade may have been intended to explode inside a classroom but it landed on the playground, causing little damage.

Assessing situation

Comelec Commissioner Sheriff Abas said field officers of the poll body would inspect the areas that came under attack to assess the situation before making final recommendations.

Abas said any decision to put the areas under Comelec control would be based on whatever is recommended by the field officers.

He stressed one of the options is to transfer the voters assigned at the affected schools to other schools so they can vote on May 9.

“If the schools can no longer be used because they have been razed by fire, or in this case bombed, the en banc will do the transfer,” he added.

If teachers refuse to serve in the areas during the elections, the Comelec may have to require members of the Philippine National Police to serve as Board of Elections Inspectors.

“In ARMM, sometimes on the day of the elections there are teachers who will suddenly not show up. There is a process that the Comelec en banc observes in dealing with a situation like this,” he maintained.

Sens. Vicente Sotto III and Gregorio Honasan, meanwhile, expressed concern over the attacks, which came barely 10 days before the national elections.

“This is definitely an act of terrorism,” Sotto said, as he called on Gov. Toto Mangudadatu to look deeper into the incident.

“This is obviously an act of terrorism for you to target schools. Somehow related to the forthcoming elections because they are voting precincts,” Sotto said.

Honasan said the incident would have a chilling effect on teachers assigned to poll duties on May 9.   – Sheila Crisostomo, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Christina Mendez