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Friday, September 05, 2003
Explosion rocks Baguio barangay anew
By Ernie N. Olson Jr.
BAGUIO -- An explosion rocked a barangay in Baguio City Thursday dawn, barely two months after a bomb was exploded at a telephone booth in New Lucban on July 20.
The still unidentified device was detonated at a vacant lot owned by a pioneer resident of the city Thursday, police said.
Investigators reported no casualty or injury but the low owner's water tank was damaged when bomb shrapnel punctured its sides.
Police explosives operatives and a PNP scene-of-the-crime (Soco) operations team led by Senior Insp. Lorenzo Sabug found no evidence inside the damaged water tank to shed light on the make of the explosive device.
The owner of the lot where the bomb was exploded was identified as a certain Manny Carantes.
Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) Station 2 Chief Lavis Camdas reported that the explosion occurred around 4:30 a.m. Thursday.
Investigators led by PO2 Alberto Rebula said they have access to a possible witness to the incident.
According to the witness, whose identity was kept under wraps for security reasons, he was talking to his brother on his cellular phone when he heard a loud blast.
"When he peeped out the window, he saw two persons leaving the area casually," a police investigator revealed.
The July 20 explosion in the barangay alarmed many residents. The blast damaged a telephone booth. No one was reported injured.
Police, however, were quick to dismiss speculations that the incident was terror-related.
Elmer Ragay, BCPO intelligence and investigation chief, said the explosion then only caused minor damages to the phone booth.
He also surmised that the culprit or culprits did not have any other intention except cause panic among residents.
Insp. Emilio Dallo, also of the Baguio City police, said the device used in the July 20 explosion had the capability to hurt or even kill.
Sabug, however, belied Dallo's statement, claiming that the device could only cause minor damages.
Police are still investigating the motive behind the earlier incident.
(September 5, 2003 issue)
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