AN improvised explosive device exploded
within the compound of the Office of the Ombudsman along Agham
Road in Quezon City early Sunday morning, damaging a sewage
treatment tank and breaking the glass window of a guard post but
taking no human toll.
PO2 Loreto Tigno of the Quezon City Police
District said the explosion took place at around 5 a.m. He said
those inside the compound at the time were on-duty security
guards Zaldy Flores and Roy Sapad, both from the Variance
Security Agency.
Tigno said that the two guards were at their
post at the time of the blast which occurred some 10 feet away.
Insp. Arnulfo Franco, chief of QCPD’s
Explosives and Ordinance Division, said analysis of fragments
taken from the blast site showed that the main component of the
IED was nitrate, a chemical used in dynamites. He said the IED
was probably hurled from outside the compound as they also found
just outside the gate a used matchstick believed to have been
used to light up the homemade bomb.
Franco said the surveillance video was too
blurred to be of help. He said no one at the Ombudsman had
received any threats prior to the explosion.
Deputy Presidential Spokesman Anthony Golez,
in an interview from Hong Kong though Radyo ng Bayan, said the
police has been directed to resolve the case as soon as
possible.
"Sa lalong madaling panahon ay kailangang masugpo o
kailangang mahuli kung sinuman ang may kagagawan niyan. Hindi
natin pinapayagan ang mga ganyang mga aktibidad. Higit pa dahil
ang ating mga kababayan sa (Metro) Manila ay tahimik at hindi
tayo naniniwala sa ganyang klaseng karahasan," he said. –
Angela Lopez de Leon with Jocelyn Montemayor
