Bomb found inside Pagadian City bus

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Government forces on Tuesday foiled a bombing attempt in a passenger bus in the southern Philippine city of Pagadian. 1Lt. Steffanie Cacho, information officer of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, said the improvised explosive device was discovered at about 1:30 p.m. by policemen while inspecting a bus plying the Pagadian City-Zamboanga City route. Cacho said the improvised bomb was fashioned out of two 60-milimeter mortar shells. "It (the bomb) was successfully disrupted around 2:45 p.m. by explosive ordnance demolition (EOD) personnel," Cacho said. Investigation is underway to unmask the suspects who planted the bomb aboard the Rural Transit Bus, owned by Rural Transit Management Inc (RTMI). Tuesday’s attempt was the third that were foiled by the troops within the Westmincom area of jurisdiction after the twin explosions in Iligan City Thursday last week. Two people died while 48 others were wounded when two bombs exploded one after the other on two commercial establishments in downtown Iligan City. The first foiled bombing attempt was last Friday afternoon while the second one was last Sunday. Both were in Iligan City. Despite the incidents, the Westmincom has lowered the alert level from "red" to "blue" to show that they are on top of the situation. Cacho said the move is to remove the people's impression that the provinces and cities within the Westmincom area of jurisdiction are dangerous places. "We will not allow the enemy to have a psychological impact over the whole of Westmincom," she said. Military and police officials in Iligan City believed that the group of rouge Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leader Abdulrahman Macapaar alias Commander Bravo was behind the twin bombings. They view it as a diversionary tactic of Bravo to ease the military pressure since he and his men are continuously being hunted by the troops. Cacho said the Westmincom believed that the recent bombings were isolated cases. - GMANews.TV