5 hurt in roadside bombing in Davao del Sur

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines  – Five passengers of an ambulance were injured on Sunday as communist rebels set off a roadside bomb along a barangay road in nearby Bansalan town in Davao del Sur.

The victims were on their way to Barangay Managa in Bansalan to evacuate from the area and transport to a hospital several soldiers reportedly injured in an encounter with New People’s Army guerrillas when a bomb, planted at one side of the road, went off, crippling their ambulance.

The police identified the injured ambulance passengers as Ivan Malingco, who is a Red Cross worker, and Bonita Dela Cruz, Henaro Dumayas, Alberto Cabual Jr., and Arnel Valeroso, all volunteers of the Davao Del Sur Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Responding policemen and local officials rushed the victims to a hospital in Digos City.

Dumayas, who sustained several wounds in different parts of his body, is in critical condition, according to senior members of the Bansalan municipal peace and order council.

Army intelligence sources said  the bombing was  perpetrated by a group led by Commander Rang-Rang of the NPA’s Guerilla Front 51.

The incident was preceded by last week’s roadside bombing in President Roxas, North Cotabato that injured the town’s municipal mayor, Jaime Mahingpit, and his three police escorts.

The mayor and his companions were on their way to a remote barangay in President Roxas to inspect a road project when NPAs blasted a home-made explosive as their vehicle passed through a secluded stretch of the road.