Christians Under Attack

Those who were wounded were sitting on the last pews near the entrance of the church, said Bishop Jose Araneta Cabantan, bishop of the Diocese of Malaybalay.

Cabantan said the attack happened past 8 a.m. Sunday morning while the parishioners were praying the "Prayers of the Faithful."

The other grenade that failed to explode was detonated by the Kalilangan police who were also in the church hearing the Mass of Fr. Art Paraiso, said Cabantan.

“Policemen who were in the church helped Fr. Paraiso in calming the parishioners down.

They then all went outside the church and Fr. Paraiso proceeded to say the Mass outside,” he said.

Cabantan said the attackers were teenagers who were riding in tandem on a motorcycle.

“According to the police, the one who threw the grenades was more or less 12 years old who immediately escaped onboard the waiting motorcycle,” he said. “The attack on the church was the first in the history of the town.”

The bishop said that according to the police, Sunday morning’s attack could be tied to the recent attack by Maranao Muslims on a bus owned by the Rural Transit of Mindanao Inc. (RTMI) in Kapatagan, Lanao del Norte last week and also on the killing by Maranao Muslims of an RTMI bus driver in Wao, Lanao del Sur two weeks ago.

Cabantan said an RTMI bus driver on Cagayan de Oro-Kalilangan route told the police that he was the target of the killers of another RTMI driver.

That driver claimed he was the one who ran over and killed a Maranao Muslim boy in Wao.

  “The police theorized that attack on the church could be tied to the attacks on the RTMI driver and that the attackers were just exacting  revenge on the Christians for the killing of the Muslim boy by a bus driver,” the bishop said.

The San Vicente Ferrer parish has more than 20,000 parishioners.

Kalilangan is one of the more progressive towns of Bukidnon. It is the last town of Bukidnon and borders Lanao del Sur.

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