Cops probe Catbalogan City explosions

TACLOBAN CITY, March 3 (PNA) -– The Philippine National Police (PNP) will form a special task force to investigate two separate explosion incidents that injured two persons in Catbalogan City in Samar province early Friday morning.

PNP Eastern Visayas Regional Director Chief Supt. Elmer Beltejar said a Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) will be formed to investigate the blasts that hit residences of local government officials.

“By creating the SITG, we are committed to identify the perpetrators to give justice to the victims and for disturbing the peace of the community,” Beltejar said.

The police regional chief appealed to the public to support the PNP in its investigation for the immediate identification and subsequent arrest of the suspects.

According to police reports, the first blast occurred 1:30 a.m. in Canlapwas village that injured Faith Rosales, 17 and her neighbor BJ Bernate, 6 after being hit by splinters. 

Witnesses told the police that a riding in tandem threw a homemade explosive devise at the house of Ma. Elfa De Jesus, Canlapwas village chief.

Rosales was waiting for a motorcycle ride near the village chief’s house while Bernate was asleep a few meters away from the explosion site.

Both suffered slight injuries in their arms and were brought to Samar Provincial Hospital for treatment.

In a separate incident, suspects launched a grenade attack around 1:50 a.m. at the house of Lucio Pacle in Silanga village, also in Catbalogan. Pacle is the municipal administrator of nearby Hinabangan town in Samar.

Nobody was hurt in the second explosion, but Pacle’s car was badly damaged. 

Citing accounts of witnesses, police said that suspects were on board a black single motorcycle clad in black jackets and bonnets.

The police don’t discount the possibilities that these two blasts were done by same suspects, according to Beltejar.

Catbalogan, the capital of Samar province, is approximately 100 kilometers north of Tacloban City.

The explosion rocked the small city a month before hosting the United Cities and Local Government Asia-Pacific executive bureau meeting on April 5-7, 2017. 

The international event will be joined by 300 local chief executives and other key officials from 19 countries. (PNA)
LAP/SARWELL Q. MENIANO