Coast guard, Army boats at Masbate Port damaged by bombing

THE PHILIPPINE Coast Guard (PCG) reported an explosion at 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 3 that occurred about 100 meters from the PCG station at the Masbate Port, damaging two of its aluminum boats and wrecked a recently-procured rescue boat of the Philippine Army. In a statement, the PCG said witnesses saw a small motorized banca roaming the vicinity of the incident before the explosion. Investigation is ongoing. The Philippine National Police, in a media conference yesterday, pointed to the communist New People’s Army as behind the bombing.