Cop, villager dead in Maguindanao roadside bombing

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — A police master sergeant and a villager were killed while four others were hurt in a bomb attack Thursday night in Shariff Aguak town.

The roadside bomb went off while a vehicle carrying policemen led by Major Erwin Tabora was passing by a secluded stretch of a road traversing the border of Maguindanao’s Shariff Aguak and Datu Hofer towns.

Brig. Gen. Manuel Abu, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said Friday one of Tabora’s escorts, Master Sgt. Antonio Balasa, and a civilian named Bobby both died from injuries at the Maguindanao provincial hospital where they were rushed for treatment.

Four companions of Tabora, Sergeants Larry Amoran and Guerrero Domingo and Corporals Guia Mangrag and Clyde Peria were hurt in the explosion.

Investigators are still clueless on who could have pulled off the roadside bombing that occurred just about a week after Tabora and his men killed four shabu peddlers in a shootout in Barangay Timbangan, Shariff Aguak.

The four men reportedly had links with the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

Shariff Aguak Mayor Marop Ampatuan, chairperson of the municipal peace and order council, has offered a P100,000 cash incentive in exchange for any information leading to the arrest of the bombers.

“Our local government unit also extended financial assistance for the burial of the bombing fatalities and for the medication of the four policemen injured in the incident,” Ampatuan said.

He said he has instructed members of the municipal association of barangay captains to help investigators identify the culprits for prosecution.