Wednesday, September 01, 2004 Grenade explodes in market; 1 hurt By Joy G. Romares
DAVAO CITY -- A police informer was seriously hurt when a grenade exploded near his store where he was sipping coffee Tuesday in Bankerohan in Davao City.
Victim Vergilio Cadutdot's wife said the incident might be related to his husband's work but Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte said the incident was probably only a turf war in the marketplace.
Cadutdot, 51, is a former Davao City Police Auxiliary Group (DCPAG) member and a resident of San Pedro Extension, Davao City.
He is now in critical condition at the Davao Medical Center (DMC).
Initial investigation said Cadutdot and his wife went to their store in Larayan 2000 in Bankerohan around 3:20 a.m.
When they arrived there, Cadutdot sat on a bench and sipped coffee while his wife went inside to see to things.
A few seconds later, Cadutdot's wife heard a loud explosion and rushed out only to find her husband already bloodied and lying on the ground.
The hand grenade was allegedly placed a few meters away from the bench where Cadutdot was seated.
Cadutdot sustained wounds in his forehead, thighs, arms, head, butt, and in the back portion of his body. He was immediately taken to the hospital.
A hospital security guard, Norman Napoles, said Cadutdot's wife told him that her husband was a former member of the police auxiliary group but left to focus on the family business.
He added that the victim, according to his wife, took it upon himself to maintain peace and order in San Pedro Bankerohan by reporting offenders to the San Pedro Police.
Cadutdot's wife further said someone might be harboring a grudge on her husband because of his being a police informant.
Duterte, however, doesn't agree with this theory.
"Awayan yan sa pwesto, kaya lang DCPAG siya," he said. (It's a turf war. It just happens that he was a DCPAG member.)
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