8 dead in Baclaran blast

Eight people were killed and over 30 others were wounded in a grenade blast set off by unidentified men on a busy intersection in Baclaran, Parañaque yesterday afternoon.

Police investigators said the bombers could have used the grenade explosion as a smoke screen for robbing two jewelry shops inside the Megatime Emporium at about 4:30 p.m.

The explosion occurred as thousands of people were attending Palm Sunday Mass at the nearby Redemptorist Church.

As of press time, only three of the fatalities had been identified by the police: 39-year-old vendor Eliza Rebato, security guard Arnel Cajandab and a certain Raquim Mauyag.

Rebato and Cajandab were declared dead on arrival at the nearby Sta. Rita Hospital where most of the wounded were taken before they were transferred to various hospitals, including the Philippine General Hospital and the San Juan de Dios Hospital.

Three of the wounded died while undergoing treatment at the Protacio Hospital, while three others, among them a baby girl, died at the Parañaque Community Hospital.

Two Parañaque policemen, PO2 Rick Macaraeg and PO1 Anthony Alising, who were manning an outpost near the blast site under the Light Rail Transit terminal in Baclaran, suffered shrapnel wounds.

Responding policemen and Marine soldiers were greeted at the scene by pools of blood amid strewn slippers and shoes and scattered merchandise. Grenade shrapnel also struck some passenger jeepneys' tires, deflating them.

The lawmen missed the grenade throwers, but arrested later four suspects with the help of several storekeepers and their helpers.

Two of the suspects, identified as John de Guzman, 40, of San Mateo, Rizal, and Najir Ampuan, 25, of Marawi City, were reportedly cornered while hiding on the second floor of the Baclaran ITM Shopping Center.

Two of the suspects, however, denied involvement in the crime, claiming they were merely shopping when the explosion took place.

A fifth suspect was reportedly nabbed at about 7 last night at the Philtranco Terminal along E. de los Santos Avenue in Pasay City.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing.

However, intelligence agents who refused to be identified did not entirely rule out the possibility that it was a terrorist attack.

About two weeks ago, unidentified men also lobbed a grenade in front of a police precinct along Sto. Niño street in Pasay City, while their companions were robbing a nearby jewelry store. Two policemen and a civilian bystander were wounded in that explosion.

Parañaque police chief Superintendent Roberto Rongavilla said the explosion yesterday could have served a similar purpose.

Chief Superintendent Edgar Aglipay, director of the National Capital Region Police Office, held it likely that the same group perpetrated both attacks.

But veteran Parañaque police investigators said it was too early to speculate on anything. "We are still conducting a probe," they said.

On Saturday night, at least 15 people were wounded when two bomb explosions ripped through a commercial district in Cagayan de Oro City in Misamis Oriental.

Police said the Cagayan de Oro blasts came from home made bombs, one of which was planted inside a public market and the other at the entrance to a supermarket 100 meters away. -