9 Mlang blast victims still in hospital, gets aid

KIDAPAWAN
CITY – Nine of the 33 injured civilians in the year-end public market bombing
in Mlang, North Cotabato are still in the hospital, eight days after
unidentified men set off the improvised bomb.
Dr.
Eva Rabaya, North Cotabato Integrated Provincial Health Office chief, said six
of them are confined at the Cotabato provincial hospital, two in a private hospital
in Mlang and one in Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City.
She
said all the six patients have underwent major operation and are now in
recovery stage.
Rabaya,
also North Cotabato provincial health chief, said the provincial government have
assumed all the hospital bills and medicine of the patients still at the
provincial hospital.
Financial
assistance was also extended to patients in Mlang and in Davao City. Those who
remained in the hospitals are attended to by Department of Social Welfare and
Development personnel, conducting psychological and stress debriefing.
They
were among the 33 wounded civilians when the suspects, believed to be members
of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), set off a powerful IED,
fashioned from 81 mm mortar and mobile phone as trigger mechanism, at 3:45 p.m.
on December 31.
The
Mlang public market was bustling with rushing shoppers hours before the New
Year comes when the suspect left a huge plastic bag, left and later set off. A 38-year-old bread vendor died on the spot
while another expired in the hospital hours later.The
suspects remained at large.
A P200,000 bounty has been offeredfor anyone who can provide information
leading to the identification, arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators.