Cotabato City schools asked to fly flags at half-mast for mall blast victims

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The mayor of Cotabato City on Sunday asked school officials to raise the Philippine flag in campuses at half-mast for five days in sympathy with the victims of the December 31 bombing in a shopping mall in the city.

Halima Satol-Ibrahim, the city government’s chief information officer, said Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi has asked local school administrators to raise the flag at half-mast from Monday until Friday.

In a statement, the mayor said the move is meant to honor the two who died in the bombing, Jonathan Tasic Torribiano and Mariam Ulama Cali, and show oneness with the 37 others who were hurt in the attack.

Torribiano and Cali succumbed to injuries sustained in the explosion near the main gate to the Southseas Mall along Don Rufino Alonzo Street here.

Another improvised explosive device was found about an hour later near a lottery outlet on the second floor of the mall. Bomb disposal experts managed to deactivate the IED promptly.

Task Force Southseas, formed to investigate the blast, showed to reporters last Friday photos of the two men who brought the second IED inside the mall.

The photos were grabbed from footage recorded by security cameras inside the Southseas Mall.

Superintendent Rolly Octavio of the Cotabato City police said the office of the city mayor offered a P500,000 cash incentive for any information leading to the arrest of the two bombing suspects.

Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao also promised to contribute to the bounty raised by the Cotabato City local government.

The 32-hectare regional capitol of ARMM is located in Cotabato City.

Octavio said their efforts to locate the two suspects, whose photos they showed to reporters in an informal briefing late Friday, are being assisted by intelligence units of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.