June 13, 2016
Garbage collectors in Midsayap town on Monday found a bomb in the heap of waste they were to pour into a compactor, causing them to panic and run for their lives.
Responding bomb experts managed to immediately deactivate the improvised explosive device, fashioned from a live 81-millimeter mortar rigged with a blasting mechanism attached to a mobile phone.
The garbage collectors who found the IED first noticed its contraption of electrical wires dangling from the box where it was placed.
Investigators said the IED was covered by garbage collected from the premises of a radio station at the old bus terminal in the center of Midsayap, an agricultural town in the first district of North Cotabato.
Residents of Midsayap, home to mixed Muslims and Christians, are no stranger to IED attacks, having witnessed bombings in the municipality in previous years.
The Al-Khobar extortion gang, comprised of rogue secessionist rebels, even attempted to mulct money from the Midsayap local government unit in 2009, threatening to bomb public spots in the municipality if the “protection money” it is demanding is not met.