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ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews /14 December) – An explosion rocked Isabela City in Basilan when an improvised bomb exploded early Saturday in front of the mayor’s residence after another explosive was safely recovered.
Chief Insp. Ariel Huesca, Police Regional Office-9 (PRO-9) information officer, said no one was either killed or wounded in the explosion around 2 a.m. Saturday outside the fence of the residence of Isabela Mayor Cherrylin Santos-Akbar in Barangay Sunrise.
Huesca said the bomb exploded barely five minutes after an improvised bomb was found underneath one of the tables at a videoke house near Akbar’s residence.
He said the improvised bomb that exploded was powerful that it left a crater two feet deep and two feet wide.
The police officer said the Explosive Ordnance Demolition (EOD) teams of both the police and military have yet to determine the type of bomb that exploded.
Capt. Jefferson Somera, information officer of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, disclosed that two persons riding tandem on a motorcycle were seen to have passed and dropped a cartoon box in front of Akbar’s residence prior to the explosion.
Somera said the bomb that was recovered at the videoke house is a cellphone-triggered explosive with 81-mm ammunition as the main charge, but the EOD safely defused the bomb.
Huesca said investigation continues to unmask the suspects behind the incident.