By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
Dozens of passengers escaped death or serious injuries Saturday after a bomb exploded on board an abandoned bus in the southern Philippines.
Police said that the bus had been vacated minutes earlier after a passenger noticed an object with an attached cellphone dropping from an empty seat when it stopped at a terminal in the town of Sto. Nino.
Chief Insp. Joel Fuerte, town police chief, told MindaNews that the passenger immediately alerted the bus driver, conductor and other passengers.
“The passengers and crew were able to disembark from the bus before it exploded.”
He said the bomb went off around 10 a.m. (GMT0300) and they were still analyzing components, but had noted that it was crudely-made.
According to Fuerte, his men were tracking down three people believed to have planted the explosive.
“Three suspects were identified by the conductor and some passengers as the ones who were seated at the spot where the explosive was planted,” Fuerte said.
The bus company has been the subject of bomb attacks in previous months believed to have been perpetrated by an extortion group operating in the area.
The bus was bound for Koronadal City, a neighboring city in strife-torn Maguindanao and North Cotabato provinces where the rebel group the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) operates.
