Extortionists, extremists seen behind Bukidnon bus blast

Extortion syndicates or possibly an extremist group are being considered as being behind Tuesday night's bombing of a passenger bus in Bukidnon province that killed 11 people and injured 21 others.

A report on GMA News TV's “News To Go” on Wednesday quoted Bukidnon governor Jose Maria Zubiri Jr. as saying that the bus firm Rural Transit Mindanao Inc. has been receiving extortion demands from groups but had never reported it to authorities.

The explosion occurred across Central Mindanao University, at a time when students were going home. Four of the 11 fatalities were students.

It was the second bombing of a bus in Maramag town since November. On November 6, four people were injured in an explosion inside another RTMI bus.

A separate report on "News To Go" quoted Philippine National Police Region 10 as saying the individual or group behind the two bombings may have been the same. It added that rounds of mortar were used in both incidents.

Meanwhile, RTMI may be barred from plying routes in Bukidnon if it does not cooperate in an ongoing investigation into the bombing, Zubiri said.

A report by GMA Northern Mindanao's Cassy Rosos said Zubiri is convinced extortion is behind the bombing even if the company denied it.

Governor Zubiri says he's convinced that extortion is behind the RTMI bus bombing even if the bus company denied this. @24Oras_NM

— cassy rosos (@kasirosos) December 10, 2014

Signs of terrorism

For his part, Armed Forces spokesman Col. Resty Padilla told “News To Go” the incident could be a handiwork of an extremist group, noting that an improvised explosive device (IED) was used in the bombing.

"Ilan lang [ang] may kakayahan gumawa [ng IED], and most of them ay sa extremist group sa lugar na 'yan at iba pang lugar sa Mindanao," he said without identifying the group.

Padilla said unexploded rounds of mortar used by some military and police personnel in the field may have been used to make the IED.

He added that efforts are being made to recover all unexploded IED in the field.

"Ang mga rounds na 'yan karamihan na-recover," he said. —Amanda Fernandez and Joel Locsin/KBK, GMA News