Iligan City bridge bombed: Probers eye MILF link

[AngelSaint 0]

MANILA, Philippines - Police and military authorities closed to motorists yesterday a bridge in Iligan City, which was bombed by still unidentified suspects in Barangay Agos, military officials said.

Col. Benito de Leon, chief of the Army’s 104th Infantry Brigade said in a phone interview that while they are yet to have leads on the perpetrators, investigators are looking into, among others, the possible involvement of renegade Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels in the incident.

De Leon said the suspects detonated two improvised explosive devices at the Agos Bridge, which links Iligan City in Lanao del Norte to the cities of Zamboanga and Pagadian at around 1:40 a.m. yesterday.

The 100-meter bridge, according to de Leon, is near the famous Ma. Cristina Falls.

The bombs were rigged on both approaches of the bridge causing it to sag and rendered impassable to all types of vehicles.

1st Lt. Steffani Cacho, Western Mindanao Command spokesman, said responding elements of the PNP and Army found that both approaches of the structural support of the Agu Bridge was blown off.

Cacho said explosive ordnance and disposal units elements have been dispatched to determine the type of bomb used in the powerful explosion that damaged glass windows of the government edifices few hundred meters away from the site.

Lanao del Norte is where fugitive MILF Commander Abdurahman Macapaar alias Commander Bravo and his followers operate.

“I think that (MILF involvement) is being pursued, but as of the moment it is difficult to determine and everything as of now is speculation,” De Leon said.

Macapaar is being hunted down by government troops since August last year after he and his men led a murderous rampage in civilian communities in the province after the botched signing of the Bangsamoro homeland deal.

The government has offered P10 million for Macapaar’s arrest or neutralization.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who admitted that the hunt for the fugitive commander and renegade MILF leaders Ameril Umbra Kato and Aleem Sulaiman has become more difficult, adding there is a need to intensify intelligence gathering operations to pinpoint their whereabouts.

He also said that the security efforts in other parts of Mindanao, particularly in Sulu, have somehow affected the military’s focus.

In related developments, several people were wounded when a bomb exploded inside a parked Rural Transit bus at around 1:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon in Kabacan.

Initial reports bared the victims were immediately brought to the different hospitals in Kabacan.

The bus was reported to have come from Cagayan de Oro City and was on its way to Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat.

The bombing in Kabacan actually followed the twin blasts that hit the Agus Bridge at Ma. Cristina Village in Iligan City at around 1:40 a.m. also yesterday morning.

Thousands of commuters were stranded yesterday as the twin bombings have caused heavy damage to the bridge that linked Iligan City to Lanao del Norte.

The bombings also destroyed certain houses as well as the National Power Corp. warehouse that were just adjacent to the Agus Bridge.

Police and military personnel immediately cordoned off the bridge as it was rendered impassable by the twin explosions.

Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command chief Maj. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer said security forces were also alerted on the possibility that the said perpetrators would also target the transmission lines supplying power all over Mindanao. – With Edith Regalado, Evelyn Macairan, Lino de la Cruz - By James Mananghaya and Roel Pareño (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)

[rlogan 2,036]

Thanks...

That bridge is just down the road from where my wife's family lives. In the house I built where I lived too, actually - in Iligan City. Been over it many times. Near the steel plant close to Maria Cristina Falls. It's the bridge over the agus river that runs the power plant at Maria Cristina falls. No alternative local road route.

There's been a number of bombings in Iligan City since we met, and it is obviously a source of grave concern. One of them was outside the grocery store where we shop where people store their backpacks.

But we don't have the blind rage "kill kill kill" mentality, nor panic we see from some. You have to approach this with a level-headed rule-of-law demeanor, capturing and meting out justice appropriately, in a manner that does not tend to legitimize the claims of the perpetrators. There is a homeland claim being advanced and in all cases of asymmetric force the weaker side chooses guerilla war. One of the strategies is to bait the government into a response that invokes sympathy for their cause. Indiscrimant use of the army will do that, as will the exercises that have involved US forces. That has brought resentment and anger completely unneccessary - I saw it in protests while I was there and with people I spoke with who are resolutely behind the government but angered by what amounts to them as an imposition against their sovereignty.

I read the thread pertaining to August 2008, and my wife and I were surprised to see things characterized as pandemonium because it simply wasn't. Iligan is still a relatively safe place. This bridge bombing is a real transportation problem because rice trucks, busses, jeepneys, etc have no alternative local route. If this is handled correctly the MILF is really going to come out looking badly. Likewise if they attack the power lines.

[shang 0]

It's still under investigation. The bridge will be ready in four months....And right now they are working on the other abandoned bridge and they are trying to make it by Friday....

[AngelSaint 0]

I live in Iligan City for 10yrs. That is where I took my highschool years in regional science and graduated college in MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology. It was a peaceful place when I was in highschool and the wars between militars and MILF started to flame on yr 2000 where we could hear gun shots, bomb exploding 2kilometers away from our house. Classes were suspended. The peacetalk among leaders did not make any sense and the terrorism continually goes on until this time. Many people suffered and died...stories are horrible when u hear civilians and kids were beheaded by MILFs. It's so sad...

I like Iligan CIty. I have my brother's family there, friends and some relatives too. It's a simple place, cheap living, and I like the nature most of all. We even had boating under the presently bombed bridge. That is where the water from Ma.Cristina Falls meets with the sea.

I just pray that peace will come to the people and the MILF will surrender.

[shang 0]

I live in Iligan City for 10yrs. That is where I took my highschool years in regional science and graduated college in MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology. It was a peaceful place when I was in highschool and the wars between militars and MILF started to flame on yr 2000 where we could hear gun shots, bomb exploding 2kilometers away from our house. Classes were suspended. The peacetalk among leaders did not make any sense and the terrorism continually goes on until this time. Many people suffered and died...stories are horrible when u hear civilians and kids were beheaded by MILFs. It's so sad...

I like Iligan CIty. I have my brother's family there, friends and some relatives too. It's a simple place, cheap living, and I like the nature most of all. We even had boating under the presently bombed bridge. That is where the water from Ma.Cristina Falls meets with the sea.

I just pray that peace will come to the people and the MILF will surrender.

Yeah, me too...Everyone is praying for peace.....It was scary though to what have happened last year hehehehe....I hope that it won't happen again