KIDAPAWAN CITY – The Philippine National Police on Monday sacked two senior police officers in the southern province of Sultan Kudarat following a deadly bomb attack that killed 2 people and wounded over a dozen others.
The provincial police director, Senior Superintendent Noel Kinazo, and Isulan town’s police chief Superintendent Celestino Daniel were both relieved for failing to prevent the bombing late Sunday. Kinazo was replaced by Senior Superintendent Reynaldo Felestino while Superintendent Junny Buenacosa has been named as the new Isulan police chief.
The Western Mindanao Command did not say whether it would relieve its military commanders in the province for lapses in security.
The latest attack was the second in 5 days, blamed by the military to the pro-ISIS Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters or BIFF, which has been fighting for a caliphate in the restive region.
The explosion occurred in downtown Isulan near shops, but it was unclear how the bomber managed to smuggle the device that exploded inside an Internet shop. But the attack showed how poor the security was in the largely Catholic province, especially in Isulan town.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the bombing, but this occurred after a motorcycle, laden with explosives, went off evening of August 28 in downtown Isulan and killed 3 people and wounded at least 35 others with the Islamic State claiming responsibility for the blast.
The daring attacks also timed while the whole region is under martial rule. The BIFF, whose leaders have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, also claimed responsibility for the motorcycle bombing. The BIFF, whose members were mostly former Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters, is one of several pro-IS militant groups fighting for the establishment of a caliphate on Mindanao.
Governor Mujiv Hataman, of the Muslim autonomous region has strongly condemned the attacks. “The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) government condemns these bomb attacks, and recent incidents of violence in Mindanao, in the strongest possible terms,” he said, although Sultan Kudarat is not part of the ARMM.
But Hataman said: “We share cultural ties and bonds of kinship with the people of the province. We in the regional government are fully committed to working with other agencies of government, and with concerned citizens, in safeguarding the communities, and in countering this violence. We denounce the extremism that spawns such violence.These attacks come at a time when peace in Mindanao is at hand, thanks to the passage of the Bangsamoro Organic Law—a law that is going to be put to the polls for ratification by the people in a referendum.”
“We pray that this violence will not stop the sustained efforts we are all making to create a lasting peace. If we don’t work for peace now, then when can we do this? This peace we seek is for our children, and for the generations to come. We should not let violence hold sway or stop us from achieving this peace we all want and need,” he added.
Security forces have been fighting militant groups in the southern region the past years. The blast occurred following President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to the armed forces to crush terrorism.
In July this year, a Moroccan ISIS soldier Abu Katheer al Maghribi, exploded his van filled with explosives in Lamitan City in the volatile Muslim province of Basilan, several nautical miles south of Zamboanga. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the July 31 suicide attack that left over a dozen casualties.
In a post on its Amaq News Agency, the Islamic State said a Moroccan man carried out the daring assault against Filipino soldiers and identified the executor of the suicide bombing as Abu Katheer al Maghribi. “A martyrdom attack leads to 15 Filipino soldiers being killed in the city of Lamitan on the island of Basilan in the southern Philippines,” it said.
Several foreign fighters had been killed in clashes with soldiers in Basilan, a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, in recent years. The military has repeatedly urged the public to be on alert and stay vigilant at all times due to terrorism. (Mindanao Examiner. With a report from Rhoderick Beñez)
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