Mindanao Armed Conflict

COTABATO CITY - Four Christian worshipers got killed while 42 others were hurt when a powerful explosion ripped through a gymnasium in a state-run university in Marawi City on Sunday morning.

Non-Muslim students and faculty members of the Mindanao State University in Marawi City, the capital of Lanao del Sur, are free to use the large gymnasium on their campus for Sunday worship rites and during religious holidays.

MANILA Caritas Philippines, the humanitarian, development, and advocacy arm of the Catholic Church in the Philippines condemns in strongest terms the bombing inside Dimaporo Gymnasium inside the Mindanao State University, where a Catholic mass was being held.

“I am appalled by the blatant act of terror that the perpetrators were able to commit especially at this time when we are celebrating the Mindanao Week of Peace!” Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, president of Caritas Philippines, said in a statement this morning.

COTABATO CITY - Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Ebrahim of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has condemned the MSU-Marawi gymnasium bombing.

“I condemn in the strongest terms these atrocious and cowardly acts. We stand firm and united against any form of violence and extremism that threatens the peace and harmony of our society,” Ebrahim said.

“Such acts not only take away innocent lives but also sow fear and discord among our people,” he added.

He said the regional government “was saddened and troubled by the devastating news.”

Attending physicians at the Amai Pakpak Medical Center said 46 others were being treated for varying degrees of injuries at the hospital’s emergency room minutes after the blast that went up at about 7:20 a.m.

Police authorities rushing to the crime scene said the type and technical descriptions of the explosive had yet to be determined from forensic investigation obtained from an elaborate process of laboratory examination.

Dr. Pinky Rakiin of the APMC said six were under operation for serious wounds.

CAMP SK PENDATUN, Parang, Maguindanao Norte - Lanao del Sur Gov. has visited the injured vistims following an improvised bomb explosion inside the MSU gymnasium in Marawi City Sunday morning. 

He earlier visited the blast site.

CAMP SK PENDATUN, Maguindanao del Norte- At least three persons were killed on the spot inside the Mindanao State University (MSU-Marawi) gymnasium when a suspected improvised bomb was set off while a Catholic mass was going on Sunday morning, police said.

Colonel Robert Daculan, Lanao del Sur police provincial director, said the blast occured inside the gymnasium at 7 a.m. while the mass had just started.

"Many were down on the floor after the blast," Daculan said in a radio interview in Marawi City.  Initial reports said the three students died on the spot. 

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao del Norte  – Military authorities today announced that 11 local terrorists were killed during a military operation in Datu Hofer, Maguindanao del Sur Friday.

Major Saber Balogan, civil-military operations chief of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade, said elements of 40th Infantry Battalion troopers conducting patrol operations clashed with an undetermined number of DI-Salauhiddin Hassan group in Barangay Tuwayan Mother, Datu Hofer town at past 1 p.m. Friday.

“The firefight lasted for more than three hours,” Balogan said in a radio interview.

KIDAPAWAN CITY - DEAD ON arrival sa ospital ang dalawang mga nakamotorsiklo matapos barilin ng di pa matukoy na mga suspect sa Barangay Kayaga, Kabacan, North Cotabato alas 7 kagabi.

Ang mga biktima ay nakilalang sina Reynan Bernardo Napalcruz, 29 taong gulang at Jinggoy Bernardo Napalcruz ng Barangay Luna Norte, Carmen, North Cotabato.

Sa report ng Kabacan Municipal Police Station sa pamumuno ni Major Maxim Peralta, lumalabas sa imbestigasyon ng PNP na sinundan sila ng suspect na kausap at katagpo sana din nila sa naturang lugar.

COTABATO CITY - Two foreign moneylenders were killed in separate gun attacks in Central Mindanao in two days, barely two weeks after an Indian national collecting loan payments perished in an ambush in the region.

Pakistani moneylender Arshad Taraz Khan was shot dead at about dusk on Saturday by a lone attacker while transacting with clients in Barangay Salaman in Lebak town in Sultan Kudarat province in Region 12.

COTABATO CITY - Six Moro villagers were hurt in a grenade blast that ripped through a residential area at dusk Saturday in the troubled Pikit, North Cotabato.

Pikit, home to mixed Muslim and Christian communities, is now touted as the “crime capital” of Region 12 owing to the unending spate of killings and bloody clashes among rival heavily-armed groups in the area since 2020.