COTABATO CITY – Philippine authorities were investigating a grenade attack on a Protestant church that killed 2 people and wounded three others in the restive region of Mindanao, officials said Thursday.
Officials said attack late Wednesday on the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in North Cotabato’s Pikit town killed a municipal nurse and a teacher. The victims were praying when two motorcycle gunmen opened fire with rifle grenade and exploded in the church.
Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza, UCCP General Secretary, condemned the violent attack on their church and said “no circumstance or reason can justify such deplorable act on a house of worship leading to the death and injury of worshippers.”
“We condemn in the strongest term the bombing of one of our local churches in Mindanao,” he said.
He urged authorities to act speedily in thoroughly investigating the incident to uncover the perpetrators and their motives for this dastardly act and told followers to remain sober-minded, yet vigilant. “Even as we press for justice, let us not do anything that will further escalate the violence,” he said.
The UCCP identified the fatalities as Felomena Ferolin and Gina Cabiluna, and the wounded were Jeremias and Jerome Dandan, and Virginia Manolid, who is in critical condition in the hospital.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the attack. The UCCP is a local Christian denomination that resulted from the merger of the Evangelical Church of the Philippines, the Philippine Methodist Church, the Disciples of Christ, the United Evangelical Church and several independent congregations.
It is also active in human rights advocacy and many humanitarian missions in the southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner)
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