Cotabato mayor denies alleged Bukidnon bus bomber is from Mlang

MLANG, Cotabato - Mlang Mayor Joselito Pinol vehemently denied that the alleged suspect in the deadly Bukidnon bus bombing that killed 10 people and injured 40 others on Tuesday is his constituent.

 

News reports quoting the Northern Mindanao Command on Friday said Macmod Manibpil, the alleged bus bomber, was from Mlang, Cotabato.

 

Pinol said Manibpil is a resident of Barangay Nuangan, Kidapawan City and not the town of Mlang as reported.

Authorities said Manibpil is associated with the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. He remains at large to date.

Police have filed murder and frustrated murder charges against Manipbil, whom they say escaped from the Kidapawan Provincial Jail where he was being held for frustrated murder.

 

Pinol said Manibpil was arrested before due to his participation in the Kidapawan Bus Terminal and LBC bombings in October of 2003.

 

The twin Kidapawan bombings in 2003 claimed at least a dozen lives and hurt several passengers and bystanders.

 

“I’ve asked my barangay chairmen but they don’t know this man. But when I asked my sources, from the authorities they confirmed to me that Manibpil is from Kidapawan City,” Pinol said.

 

The mayor added that Manibpil was detained at the Cotabato Provincial Jail in Barangay Amas, Kidapawan but was able to escape when armed men stormed the jail facility on February 2, 2007.

 

At least 47 inmates bolted the jail that time including three high-profile inmates involved in a series of bombing activities in Cotabato and other parts of Mindanao.

 

The three suspected bombers were identified as Datu Ali Sultan, Guido and a certain Mundos.

 

At least 25 armed men believed to be members of the MILF stormed the jail then and fired an M-203 grenade launcher destroying the concrete wall of the jail façade.

 

Jail guard Reynaldo Aquino and jail trustee Joy Bustamante were hurt in the said attack. —KG, GMA News