MANILA — The second anniversary of the Maguindanao massacre was marred with an early morning blast near the site where the brutal murders happened.
Reports said the police found four improvised explosive device (IEDs) following a blast shortly before 6 in the morning in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman in Ampatuan, Maguindanao province. Bomb experts later defused the other IEDs.
Maguindanao police chief Superintendent Marcelo Pintac said the bombs were planted within the three-kilometer radius of the Maguindanao massacre site to disrupt the commemoration. A program was to be held at the site in Barangay Salman in Ampatuan town. Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo was scheduled to lead the program.
No one was reported injured but tension remains high as families and friends of the victims will gather later in a monument built in memory of the massacre victims.
Maguindanao Governor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu, in an ABS-CBN news report said the bombs were found in an area where people, who will commemorate the massacre’s second anniversary, are supposed to pass.
Fifty-eight people, 32 of whom were journalists, were murdered two years ago. The government has charged members of the Ampatuan family for the massacre.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has said that the massacre is the single deadliest event for journalists in history.
