ZAMBOANGA City — Eleven people, including a foreign-looking individual suspected to be a suicide bomber, were killed while five others were wounded in a car bomb that went off in Lamitan City, Basilan yesterday morning.
Lt. Col. Montano Almodovar, the Army’s 3rd Scout Ranger Battalion commander, said over RMN-Zamboanga the explosion happened at around 5:50 am at the Magkawit Detachment, located along the boundaries of barangays Bulanting, Colonia, and Maganda in Lamitan.
The deadly blast came less than a week after President Duterte signed the Bangsamoro Organic Law, which seeks to establish the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Barmm) to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm).
Basilan is part of the Armm, an impoverished, war-torn region and home to the minority Muslim Filipinos.
Lamitan Vice Mayor Roderick Furigay said the intersection of the three barangays serves as the main thoroughfare to the nearby towns of Akbar and Mohammad Ajul.
Almodovar said that prior to the incident, the troops flagged down a white van that was traveling towards Lamitan City proper for inspection.
Citing witnesses, he said, the van suddenly exploded while the troops requested its driver to disembark from the vehicle.
The driver was a foreign-looking person and could not speak any local dialect, he said.
Among the fatalities were a soldier, five militiamen and four civilians who were militia dependents.
An Army Scout Ranger officer, an enlisted man, and three militiamen were among those injured and were airlifted to the Camp Navarro General Hospital in this city.
The explosion wrecked the van as well as the checkpoint and a motorcycle.
Lt. Col. Gerry Besana, spokesperson of the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom), was reluctant in characterizing the incident in Lamitan as a suicide attack, saying authorities were still conducting an investigation.
But Vice Mayor Furigay said it was the first case of suicide bombing in his city.
Besana also belied speculations that the car explosion could be the handiwork of those opposing the BOL, a measure many hoped would bring just and lasting peace to Mindanao after almost 50 years of armed conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
“This is an act of terrorism,” Besana said.
Besana declined to tag any group behind the explosion, saying they still have to determine the signature of the explosive.
He noted, however, that Basilan has become “peaceful” lately due to the series of surrenders of Abu Sayyaf members in the province.
This year, 55 Abu Sayyaf members have surrendered in Basilan, the official said.
Armm Gov. Mujiv Hataman condemned the bombing which he described as a “brazen act of violence against our people.”
“We mourn the loss of lives in this senseless attack to our safety, and we continue to thank those who have devoted and continue to devote their lives to securing peace in the Bangsamoro,” he said in a statement.
Mindanao remains under martial law until the end of the year. (PNA and Bong Sarmiento, Mindanews)
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