Flags to fly half-mast in sympathy with blast victims

COTABATO CITY-- The city mayor on Sunday asked school officials to fly the Philippine flag in campuses at half-mast for five days in sympathy with the victims of the deadly bombing here last week.Halima Satol-Ibrahim, the city government’s chief information officer, said Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi has asked local school administrators to raise the flag at half-mast from Monday till Friday.In a statement, the mayor said the move is meant to honor the fatalities in the December 31 bombing here, Jonathan Tasic Torribiano and Mariam Ulama Cali, and show oneness with the 34 others who were hurt in the attack.Torribiano and Cali succumbed to injuries sustained in the explosion near the main gate to the Southseas Mall along Don Rufino Alonzo Street here.Another improvised explosive device was found about an hour later near a lottery outlet in the second floor of the same establishment that bomb disposal experts managed to deactivate promptly.The newly-formed Task Force Southseas, an interim inter-agency group now investigating on the incident, showed to reporters last Friday photos of the two men who brought the second IED inside the mall.The photos were grabbed from footage recorded by security cameras inside the Southseas Mall.Superintendent Rolly Octavio of the Cotabato City police said the office of the city mayor offered a P500,000 cash incentive for any information leading to the arrest of the two bombing suspects.Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao also promised to contribute an earnest amount to the bounty raised by the Cotabato City local government unit.The 32-hectare regional capitol of ARMM is located in Cotabato City.Octavio said their efforts to locate the two suspects, whose photos they showed to reporters in an informal briefing late Friday, are being assisted by intelligence units of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division.