COTABATO CITY — Residents have called for a probe of Tuesday night’s bombing of a fuel station in Lamitan City, convinced it was meant to embarrass local officials who declared all of its 45 villages as Abu Sayyaf-free.
Governor Hadjiman H. Salliman, who heads the Basilan Provincial Peace and Order Council, officials of the Army’s 101st Infantry Brigade and the Basilan Provincial Police Office on Tuesday said Lamitan City is free of the terrorist group.
“I condemn that atrocity in the strongest terms,” the governor said in a text message.
A passerby was hurt in the bombing of the roadside fuel station in the village of Matibay, according to police.
Lamitan City police chief Lieutenant Colonel Arlan L. Delumpines told reporters on Wednesday extortion was the most likely motive for the bombing and was not done by Abu Sayyaf terrorists. — John Felix M. Unson
