MAGUINDANAO — Investigators are still clueless on the bombings before dawn Saturday in North Upi, Maguindanao that left a policeman and seven Marines wounded.
Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, chairman of the provincial peace and order council, on Sunday urged for sobriety among residents of North Upi, touted as the most peaceful town in the first district of the province.
“The local government unit there remains on top of the situation. Local residents must refrain from speculating on the incident. Let us patiently wait for the result of an on-going investigation,” Mangudadatu said.
Two explosions before dawn Saturday in the town proper of North Upi hurt PO2 Esmael Alabat of the local police and Major Romulo Ducay, Corporals Ryan Cabual, Arnel Jiun, Oliver Albo and Alvin Sangadan and Privates 1st Class Johnny Panday and Gerwin Perez, all members of the 5th Marine Battalion.
Alabat sustained shrapnel wounds when a 40-millimeter grenade fired from a distance hit a roadside police outpost along a highway straddling through the town proper of North Upi.
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The responding Marines who secured police investigators dispatched to the scene were on their way to their battalion headquarters on board a light truck when a roadside bomb went off, wounding seven of them.
North Upi Mayor Ramon Piang said on Sunday that local Muslim, Christian and Lumad community leaders are now helping the police investigate the bombings.
“I will convene the municipal peace and order council as soon as possible to discuss these incidents,” Piang said.
North Upi is a tribal bastion of the non-Muslim ethnic Teduray group.
The outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters has reportedly claimed responsibility for the bombings in North Upi.
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Local officials, however, said they are not convinced that the BIFF, which uses the flag of the Islamic State as a revolutionary banner, was behind the atrocities.
They are certain there is no BIFF presence in North Upi, only 38 kilometers away from Camp Siongco, the command center of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.