Police: Gift-wrapped bombs came from a relative

MANILA (Updated 9:50 a.m.) -- Police said Thursday that the gift-wrapped bombs that exploded and killed a woman on Wednesday came from a family member.

National Capital Region Police chief Nicanor Bartolome said in a television interview that the package was sent from one family member.

Yvonne Chua, 31, was killed when one of the grenades exploded inside her house in Taguig City around noon Wednesday, just two days before the New Year's Eve.

Bartolome believed the incident was a result of a family misunderstanding.

Chua was unpacking the unexpected gift in her house's living room in Mahogany Phase 3 Rosewood Subdivision, Barangay Bambang when the bomb went off.

Bartolome said Chua died on the spot and sustained wounds in her face, abdomen and legs.

Her husband Vincent Chua and their child were not hurt in the explosion, said Southern Police District director Jose Arne de Los Santos.

Bartolome said the gift contained three grenades but only one exploded adding Chua may have removed the safety pin from one of the grenades when she unwrapped the package.

He noted that the package was delivered to the couple's old house in Paranaque City Tuesday night but was brought by their driver to their new home in Taguig Wednesday morning.

Police are still tracing the sender of the gift on top of its probe in finding the motive of the crime.

Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano condemned "in the strongest terms" the incident and extended her condolences to the family of the victim.

He also ordered the Taguig police to conduct thorough investigation on the incident.

"I have already ordered Senior Superintendent Tomas Apolinario Jr. (chief of Taguig Police) to conduct an extensive and exhaustive investigation on the circumstances behind the blast," she said.

Cayetano assured that the police "will do everything in their power to catch the perpetrators in the soonest time possible." (Sunnex/AH/Jonathan De Santos/PNA)