COTABATO CITY — A villager was killed in a grenade explosion that ripped through a roadside carnival in Barangay Marbel in Matalam town in Cotabato at about midnight on Tuesday.
Col. Gilbert B. Tuzon, Cotabato provincial police director, told reporters on Wednesday that the blast fatality, 32-year-old Romel Presto Cabiso, died in a hospital where emergency responders rushed him for treatment.
Mr. Cabiso was standing close to one of the carnival stalls at about two meters away from where a fragmentation grenade, hurled from a distance by a still unidentified bomber, landed and went off.
The explosion triggered panic among carnival-goers and villagers in houses around.
Matalam Vice-Mayor Ralph Ryan H. Rafael, a senior member of their inter-agency, multi-sector municipal peace and order council, and Cotabato Gov. Emmylou T. Mendoza had separately condemned the incident and called on the police to identify its perpetrator for prosecution.
The two officials both provided initial essential support the family of Mr. Cabiso and assured to help facilitate his burial.
Ms. Mendoza had offered a monetary incentive for any informant who could help the police identify the persons behind the grenade attack. — John Felix M. Unson
