On Sunday, July 5, Prince Allen Cang Diaz, 12, a sixth grader at the Sacred Heart Academy and grandson of veteran journalist Patricio P. Diaz, Sr., was among the first to die from the improvised bomb that exploded at the lechon house along Quezon Avenue, across the street from the main entrance of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral. Two days later, the year-old Jeffrey Sayre, one of the critically injured, expired in the hospital.

Prince had just stepped out of the jeepney that brought him, his dad Patricio Jr., his elder brother Eugene Paul Andre, 13 and younger sister Pia Angela, 8, to the cathedral. His lifeless body, riddled with shrapnels, was found some 10 meters from where he was last seen standing, alive.

The military spokesperson quickly pointed to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s alleged Special Operations Group (SOG) as the culprits, an allegation the MILF denied.

The next Sunday, July 12, Halima Bansil, 11, a fifth grader at the Muammad Elementary School located at the city’s border with Sultan Kudarat town, Maguindanao, died during military operations in pursuit of the July 5 bombers

The Army’s Joint Task Force Tugis was supposed to attack suspected bombers in Cotabato City.Instead, Bansil, an 11-year old,  got killed and two others were injured.

Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema said the child and her family were asleep in their nipa hut  when the soldiers arrived and allegedly fired without warning. 

“The soldiers did not search the house properly. No knocking on the door.  They just opened fire,” Sema told radio station DXMS on July 13. 

MindaNews sent  6^th ID spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce a query if an investigation has been done on the killing of Bansil but Ponce has yet to answer.