6th ID: It wasn’t an Army mortar fire
Mindanao Armed Conflict • 14:15 PM Thu Jun 24, 2021
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By:
John M. Unson
The blast killed a 21-year-old pregnant ethnic Teduray woman. (Maguindanao provincial police)
CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao - The Army’s 6th Infantry Division said Thursday it was not a military mortar fire that killed a pregnant Teduray woman in Barangay Tuayan, Datu Hoffer, Maguindanao Tuesday.
Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said Thursday there was no combat engagement between soldiers and terrorists in Barangay Tuayan and surrounding areas when a powerful explosion ripped through a farming enclave in the area.
The 21-year-old Rosita Kenendi, who belonged to the non-Moro ethnic Teduray community, died on the spot from blast injuries.
Talks are spreading around purporting that a mortar projectile fired from a distance landed near Kenendi’s house in Barangay Tuayan in Datu Hofer and went off, killing her instantly.
Soldiers and members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters are locked in a showdown since Sunday in mountain ranges around.
”We can assure the public it was not a mortar fire from any of our units. We must not forget that the BIFF is so good in fabricating improvised explosive devices. The group had used IEDs in killing, hurting innocent people,” Uy said, without elaborating.
Both sides figured in a series of gunfights last Monday in nearby Barangay Ahan in Guindulungan, forcing more than a hundred Teduray families to evacuate to safer areas.
In a statement Wednesday, the Maguindanao provincial police said probers are still investigating on the blast that ripped through Barangay Tuayan Tuesday.
Police Brig. Gen. Eden Ugale of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region has directed the Maguindanao provincial police and the Datu Hoffer municipal police to cooperate in probing on the explosion.
One of Kenendi's two children hurt in the blast is now confined in the Maguindanao Provincial Hospital.
The other child only had superficial abrasions in the left foot, according to community leaders.
Uy said Wednesday morning he has ordered their units in Datu Hoffer and adjoining towns to help the police put closure on the explosion that resulted in the death of Kenendi.
“We can’t conclude based only on insinuations, or allegations. We have to initiate a thorough investigation on the incident,” Uy said.
Uy said their troops are running after BIFF forces in upland areas in Maguindanao province whose leaders are wanted for deadly acts of terror.
He clarified, however, that there was no encounter in Barangay Tuayan on Tuesday.
There was no indication that a mortar fired from a distance by soldiers hit the house of the slain pregnant woman that also injured her two children, according to Uy.