Extortion, retaliation eyed as motives in Isulan eatery blast

SULTAN KUDARAT, Philippines — The owner of Carlito's Chicken House in Isulan town where a bomb exploded on Wednesday afternoon had received an extortion letter demanding a monthly payment of P50,000 before the incident. 

Isulan Mayor Maritess Palasigue on Thursday morning said authorities are still trying to establish if the bombing was perpetrated by the group that demanded monthly “protection money” from the owner of the restaurant.

Despite that, the military said it is certain the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters is responsible for the bombing that left at least 18 people hurt.

Officials of different units of the Army's 6th Infantry Division deployed in Sultan Kudarat told reporters Thursday that they have received tips from residents that that a new group of BIFF bombers is behind the attack.

Text messages have also been spreading in Maguindanao that followers of BIFF leader Abu Toraife, whose real name is Esmael Abdulmalik, were involved.

The group of Abu Toraife and the two other factions in the BIFF, one led by Imam Bongos and the other by Imam Karialan, have a reputation for bombing establishments that refuse to shell out "protection money" regularly.

Major Gen. Cirilito Sobejana of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division said Thursday the motive for the bombing in Isulan could be two-pronged — to intimidate central Mindanao's business community and to avenge the deaths of 21 bomb-makers in Abu Toraife's group killed in encounters along the Liguasan Delta last month.

"We will continue our pacification campaign against the BIFF," Sobejana said.

The BIFF has apparently been trying to sabotage the peace process between Malacañang and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The BIFF was founded in 2010 by Ustadz Ameril Ombra Kato after he got booted from the MILF for insubordination and irreconcilable differences with members of its central committee, among them Hadji Ahod Ebrahim, now the interim chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The bombing on Wednesday was the third in Isulan, the capital of Sultan Kudarat, since September 2018.

Five were killed while more than 30 others were injured in last year’s two bomb attacks in the municipality that authorities also blamed on the BIFF.

Mayor Palasigue said no one was killed in Wednesday’s incident, contrary to radio reports and social media blogs that two children died in the blast.

"Eight of the 18 victims have been discharged from the hospital," she also said.

Police Lt. Col. Aldrin Gonzalez, spokesman of the Regional Police Office-12, said Thursday the Sultan Kudarat provincial police is now investigating on the incident with the help of the Isulan municipal peace and order council.