THE death toll of the bomb explosion inside a bus along the Kabacan-Matalam highway in North Cotabato rose to 11.

According to a Bombo Radyo report, Cotabato Governor Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza confirmed that a victim who was confined at the North Cotabato Provincial Hospital already died.

An improvised explosive device (IED) fashioned from an 81 millimeter mortar shell, left by the three men, ripped through the Rural Transit bus around 10:45 p.m. of October 21.

Thirty of the more than 50 passengers were injured in the incident. They were rushed to different hospitals in North Cotabato.

The three suspects on the other hand were already been charged after a state witness Pigko Tangkulo, 15, admitted the three ordered him to plant the bomb inside the bus.

The suspects were reportedly local recruits of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiya. (Sunnex)