Gunmen bomb six public school buildings in Maguindanao

SULTAN MASTURA, Maguindanao -- Police investigators still have no clues on the simultaneous bombings of six school buildings in different barangays in southwest of this town before dawn Wednesday.Senior Inspector Wendylyn Banico, chief of the Sultan Mastura municipal police, said there are indications that the bombers used shoulder-fire 40 millimeter grenade projectiles and anti-tank rockets in the attack.The explosions caused panic among villagers residing around the schools, he said.The explosions damaged the classrooms in the Tapayan Central School, the Dagurungan Elementary School, the TukaElementary School, the Darping Elementary School, the Tareken Primary School and the Simuay Seashore Elementary School, all located southwest of Sultan Mastura.Barangay officials had told reporters the suspects also shot the buildings with M16 rifles as they fled.Banico said the school buildings were to be used as polling sites during the May 9 synchronized local and presidential elections. Our investigators are still trying to establish the identities of the culprits and their real motive for the attack,” Banico said.Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao on Thursday ordered his education secretary, John Magno, to send a team to the affected schools to determine possible interventions needed to hasten the repair of the damaged classrooms.Hataman said he had also ordered the director of the ARMM police, Chief Supt. Ronald Estilles, to assign intelligence agents from his office to help the Sultan Mastura municipal police investigate on the incident.