Mangudadatu offers reward for arrest of North Upi bombers

MAGUINDANAO --- Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu has offered a cash reward for any information that would lead to the arrest of the perpetrators of the two bomb attacks on Friday night in North Upi town.Mangudadatu is the presiding chairman of the inter-agency Maguindanao provincial peace and order council.In a text message to reporters Saturday, Mangudadatu condemned the bombings that injured two villagers and a policeman.Jonathan Lingatong and Allan De Guzman were both injured in the first blast that ripped through a public school campus in Barangay Borongotan in the upland North Upi municipality in the first district of Maguindanao.They were among more than 200 people watching a basketball game in the campus that got disrupted by the explosion.Another explosive hit a vehicle carrying responding personnel of the North Upi police, hurting its driver, PO1 Marjun Lahay-lahay.The roadside bomb was planted along a route near the scene of the first explosion. Let us avoid speculating on the incident in the meantime that the police and the military are still investigating on it. I’m calling on residents of Upi municipality to be vigilant and to help the police identity who the perpetrators of the bombings were, Mangudadatu said.He said he is ready to shell out an earnest amount in exchange for information leading to the arrest of the bombers.Friday’s spate of bombings in North Upi was something so unusual for its Muslim, Christian and Lumad communities.Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police said he has directed Senior Superintendent Agustin Tello, director of the Maguindanao provincial police, to tap the help of local officials in their on-going probe on the incident.