The explosion happened following US and Australian warnings of possible terrorist attacks in the country especially here in Mindanao.
Eastern Mindanao Command spokesperson Major Randolph Cabangbang said there are no indications that the explosion was perpetrated by terrorists. "Personal daw yun (They said that was personal)," Cabangbang said.
Reports reaching Sun.Star Davao showed that two motorcycle-riding men left behind the explosive device, fashioned out of an 81-millimeter mortar projectile and fitted with battery-operated trigger mechanism, by the roadside of Lagundingan village in Midsayap town early morning.
The two reportedly threw the bag containing the improvised explosive near the house of Arlene Nilgas, some 80 meters away from the barangay hall, at around 6:20 a.m.
Nilgas sustained wounds but was declared out of danger by attending physicians. She was sleeping in a house near the area where the bomb exploded.
Two suspects, who were seen milling around the area before the blast, were arrested but they denied any role in the explosion.
Midsayap police chief Chino Mamburam, however, said the two suspects confessed to their plan of bringing the explosives to any busy spot in Midsayap proper.
But the suspects sensed that security forces had set up roadblocks near the town proper, thus they hurriedly left the explosive at Lagundingan.
The US and Australian embassies released Friday a travel advisory warning their citizens of possible terrorist attacks in Mindanao, and advised their citizens against traveling to the southern Philippines.
Government troops in Mindanao region have been on alert for a spillover of ongoing military offensives against the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group and another Muslim group, a Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) faction led by Commander Habier Malik.
The ongoing election campaign for the May 14 local and national elections is also posing as a major security concern for government.
Authorities however did not discount the possibility that the explosion could be election-related and that the bomb was intended to disrupt a political rally scheduled in a nearby village.
The Midsayap blast is the second explosion in Central Mindanao in five days. Last Wednesday, a bomb also exploded in Cotabato City where the person carrying the bomb was killed after the bomb reportedly went off prematurely.
