Bomb explodes near Philippine massacre site
Authorities in the restive southern Philippines defused five roadside bombs near the site in Ampatuan town, in the largely Muslim province of Maguindanao, said provincial police chief Marcelo Pintac. He added that no one was hurt and the blast caused minor damage but tensions were running high.
The bomb was aimed at scaring people away from the commemoration of the 2009 ambush on an election-campaign convoy, he said.
"It was meant to disrupt the activity," Pintac said of the blast.
About 200 policemen were deployed to secure the massacre site and the immediate vicinity with dozens of people attending the commemoration ceremonies.
Provincial Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, whose relatives were among the dead, canceled a visit to the massacre site in Ampatuan township in Maguindanao province, saying, "We're taking no chance."
"I was about to go there but the provincial director advised me to refrain from going to the site," Mangudadatu said. He survived an August bomb attack that killed two people in the southern Philippines, where shooting incidents and bomb explosions are common.
According to a military report, two of the homemade bombs were made of 81 mm mortar shells and two-way radios to remotely detonate them. They were found along the national highway near a camp of Muslim rebels.
It wasn't clear who was responsible for planting the explosives, but about 100 of the 197 people charged are still at large a full two years after the political massacre that became the single worst slaying of journalists in the world; Kazinform cites Arab News.
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