Bukidnon bus bombing kills 11, dozens more wounded

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Police offficers in Maramag, Bukidnon are conducting manhunt on suspects who planted an improvised explosive device in a bus that killed 11 persons and dozens more wounded.

Nine of the passengers were killed on the spot, two others died at the Lavinia General Hospital in Valencia, Bukidnon while forty three more people were wounded by an improvised bomb which exploded about 100 meters away from the main gate of Central Mindanao University in Barangay Musoan, Maramag, in Bukidnon, past 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, the report said.

Reports said that four of the fatalities are identified as Jun Rey Valdesco, John Bernard Kunahap, and Emma Valiente, all of Bukidnon and students of the Central Mindanao University (CMU), and Anita Santillan, 54, also of Bukidnon.

A CCTV camera in the Poblacion of Maramag captured s footage of the suspects when the bus left towards Valencia city from Wao, Lanao del Sur according to Bukidnon police spokesperson inspector Jeselle Longakit.

Most of the passengers were heading home from a fiesta celebration in Wao town, The bus company had been receiving extortion letters asking protection money.

Police Supt. Bernardo Mendoza, spokesperson of the regional police command in Cagayan de Oro, said that investigators are still collating reports to determine the exact number of casualties and their identity as of 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Initial police investigation disclosed that the bus owned by the Rural Transit Mindanao Inc. (RTMI) left Wao in Lanao Del Sur and was on its way to Cagayan De Oro City about 3 o’clock Tuesday afternoon.

Mendoza said that the bus with plate number KVP 178 made a stop over in front of the CMU’s main gate to pick up eight passengers before the explosion occurred 100 meters from the university gate.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack that occurred more than a month after another bus of the same company was subjected to IED attack that left four persons wounded.

Longakit said the wounded were rushed to hospitals in Valencia City and Poblacion Maramag. (PNA report)

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