Abandoned building in Shariff Kabunsuan was fired by still unidentified suspects

Ma. Lourdes “Miami” Ebilane
April 6, 2008
Story: Abandoned building in Shariff Kabunsuan was put on fire by still unidentified suspects

A two-story building believed to be owned by Department of Agrarian Reform – Maguindanao branch was burned last April 5, 2008 at about 8:40 pm.

The building was a former extension office of DAR-Maguindanao Re-settlement project is located at Kilometer 20, Labungan, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Shariff Kabunsuan.

According to Datu Odin Sinsuat, Chief of Police Inspector Dante Mamma, the residents said that there was one motorcycle passed by the area at around 8:30 pm then after 10 minutes they saw blaze of fire already. Mamma said it seems that the incident was intentional.

The fire lasted for about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

The police recovered one empty plastic cap which should be belonged to a pesticide bottle, but the plastic cap smelled gasoline. “Probably they used gasoline, but put it in a bottle of pesticide,” Mamma said.

The building contains chairs and tables or other office supplies but the things inside the building were totally burned according to the Police. The damages to property were estimated at around Php 900,000.

The Chief also said that they are still conducting investigations to determine the motive and to identify the suspects.