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Thursday, March 13, 2003
Cops hunt suspect who placed bomb in multicab
By Aurea A. Gerundio and Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO -- Police are still establishing the identity of the suspect who left a plastic bag containing explosives inside a multicab Tuesday night.
The driver, identified as Timoteo Edaņo, 48, said he had 10 passengers and five of them boarded along the Centerpoint Plaza in Matina Crossing.
As the vehicle approached the overpass in Bankerohan, one of the passengers, wearing white t-shirt and maong pants and with a skinhead haircut, alighted from the vehicle.
A short time after, Edaņo's vehicle was stopped at a police checkpoint in Magallanes St. and the passengers made to disembark and submit to a thorough search at around 9 p.m.
Police manning the checkpoint discovered the bomb inside a plastic bag left on the passenger multicab plying the Matina Aplaya-Uyanguren route Tuesday night.
Chief Insp. Leonardo Felonia, commander of the San Pedro Police station, said they got suspicious when nobody among the passengers claimed ownership of the plastic bag found in the passenger section of the vehicle.
He said they saw some wire inside and immediately sought the assistance of bomb experts. Members of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit immediately responded and detonated the bomb.
Felonia said they have yet to identify the suspect since the passengers of the multicab disappeared after the incident.
Donald Edaņo, the multicab's conductor, could not give authorities a clear description of the person who left the bomb.
But unconfirmed reports said the suspect boarded the multicab in front of Centerpoint Plaza in Matina Crossing. The bomb was not primed to explode as there was no blasting cap nor battery attached to it.
Authorities refused to confirm or deny the report.
Felonia said the PNP Crime Laboratory is still conducting post-blast investigation to determine the type of the bomb found.
Police suspect that the man who alighted near the Bankerohan overpass was the one who left the explosive inside the vehicle.
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte said it is highly possible that the persons who placed the bomb inside the multicab were connected with the suspects responsible for the bombing of the Davao International Airport (DIA) last March 4.
Shortly after the discovery of the bomb around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Duterte told reporters terrorism has now spread all over the world and Davao City is not spared from it.
North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piņol blamed the latest incident on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Despite the latest incident, Duterte said the 66th Araw ng Dabaw celebration would push through. He said strict security measures are to be implemented to ensure that no untoward incident will happen as the city celebrates its founding anniversary.
Duterte has reportedly invited General Edgardo Aglipay to grace the celebration and be one of the judges in the Mutya ng Dabaw pageant on March 15. Sun.Star Davao |
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