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Wednesday, June 04, 2003
Car alarm gadget mistaken for bomb
By Oscar C. Pineda
A CAR backing alarm attached under the HRD manager’s car startled employees of East Asia Utilities Inc. in Barangay Ibo yesterday noon as security personnel, including the car owner himself, thought it was a bomb.
It took Central Command bomb experts, two sniffing dogs and a car mechanic, whom he hired, to declare that it was just a harmless backing alarm, said Lapu-Lapu City Police Chief Paquito Belandres.
When investigators asked car owner Macario Balili, he told them that he let the experts examine his car as he also thought that somebody put a bomb under his car.
Belandres said Balili is the company’s human resources and development (HRD) manager and the owner of the red Honda car, with plate number GJF-796.
The official said it was head guard Arnulfo Ompad who saw the gadget under the car and he immediately alarmed the police at past 11 a.m. yesterday. The police came and stayed at the company compound from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
At first glance, scene investigator SPO2 Richard Inot said, one would think it was a bomb because of the wires connected to it. But upon close examination, one notices that it was welded to the car body and frame, so it has been there since the car was bought.
Still, they sought the help of the explosive and ordnance detachment, which came with two Philippine Air Force bomb sniff dogs.
Belandres also called an expert car mechanic to identify what was welded to the car. Inot was surprised why Balili did not know the gadget under his car.
After the mechanic identified what it was, they still had it checked by bomb experts, who eventually declared that it was just a car alarm.
(June 4, 2003 issue)
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