By Romie A. Evangelista

MASBATE Gov. Elisa Kho and one of her bodyguards were wounded after unidentified men detonated two bombs on a road to Masbate City before noon yesterday.

Police said Kho, the wife of Masbate Rep. Antonio Kho, was traveling in a convoy on the national highway when the bombs exploded in Gahit village in Caitangan town.

The windshield shattered from blast, and glass shards hit the governor and her unidentified bodyguard, said Bicol regional police director Paterno Bangui.

The governor sustained wounds in her eyebrows and was now resting at the family-owned Khokak beach resort in Masbate City, he said.

Masbate provincial police chief Reuben Sindac said officials suspected that the blast was the work of communist rebels, but investigators were not ruling out the possibility that the attack was carried out by the governor?s political foes or business rivals.

The attack came as the Communist Party of the Philippines ordered the New People?s Army to conduct tactical offensives in the Bicol region during the forthcoming military exercises between the Philippines and the United States.

The Balikatan military exercises begin in April. Communist rebels have condemned the activity as part of US military intervention in the local communist insurgency.

Retired Gen. Edilberto Adan, head of the commission overseeing the Visiting Forces Agreement, said the US military aimed to familiarize its forces with conditions in the Bicol region, which is considered a hotbed of the communist insurgency in the country.