TERRORISTS welcomed the appointment of Mujib Hataman as officer in charge of the Autonomous Region in Mindanao with the bombing of his new office in Cotabato City on Monday night.

This prompted military and police forces to go on heightened alert.

On Tuesday two homemade bombs were found in two key areas in the city less than 12 hours after the bombing of the ARMM governor’s compound.

Police and military officials said the targets of the bombing and attempted bombings, whose perpetrators are still being identified, are the Office of the Governor for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Cotabato City State Polytechnic College.

Col. Leopoldo Galon, spokesman for the Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command, said two bombs that were fashioned out of 81mm mortar shells were found at about 9 a.m. on Tuesday at the compound of the office of the regional governor in Cotabato City.

The homemade bombs were found inside a backpack along with a fuse, a cellular telephone, three nine-volt batteries and a circuit diagram with relay. Leaflets with the markings of Bangsamoro Independence Movement and Bangsamoro Youth Movement were also found.

The two groups are supposedly allied with the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a group that broke away from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and is headed by Ameril Umbra Kato, whom reports said had died last month but that could not be confirmed by the military.

Galon declined to blame the two groups behind the foiled bombing, saying that the National Police is still investigating the incidents.

Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz Jr., National Police spokesman, said the backpack was discovered at the right wing portion of the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex which is located inside the governor’s compound.

He said the bombs were detonated by ordnance experts from the police and the military.

More than an hour earlier, another bomb was found at the stairs leading to the exit door of the Cotabato City State Polytechnic library.

He said the bomb, which was assembled from rounds of 40mm ammunition that was wired to a cellular telephone that was used as the triggering device, was found inside a “sando” bag.

The bomb was disrupted Army ordnance experts and members of the Joint Task Force Kutawato.

On Monday night, an explosion also rocked the compound of the ARMM governor’s office.

Cruz said that responding policemen and soldiers recovered two more homemade bombs that were made from two 81mm mortar shells, three batteries and a cellular telephone.