Improvised bomb found in Angeles mall

ANGELES CITY -- Anxiety now reigns in this city after an improvised bomb was found on a seat of a McDonald's outlet at the four-story Saver's Mall in busy Barangay Balibago at about 6:50 p.m. last Tuesday.

Chief Superintendent Roberto Calinisan, Central Luzon police director, ordered the entire police force under him to work "double time and be on 24-hour alert" following the incident.

Senior Superintendent Ruben Rodriguez, city police chief, said a security guard found the bomb in a beltbag on a seat at the second floor of the McDonald's outlet.

The guard put the bag in a garbage can where he opened it. The bag contained a handgrenade without firing lever attached to some wirings and batteries. Taped around the grenade were 10 caliber .45 and M-16 bullets.

Earlier, Rodriguez said an unidentified man called up a Jollibee outlet beside McDonald's to warn that a bomb would explode there. The caller also asked whether the bomb had already been found. The search that followed revealed no bomb at Jollibee, until the guard at McDonald's found the beltbag.

Hundreds of shoppers at the mall, however, were asked to leave after the bomb threat was received.

Police sought the help of the Air Force's explosive ordnance disposal unit at Clark Field which detonated the bomb at the Astro Park in front of Clark at about 10 p.m. The explosion created a two-foot deep hole in the ground.

Calinisan, however, said the incident was not related to the Mindanao conflict, pointing out that an association of Muslims in Central Luzon recently denounced the atrocities of the Abu Sayyaf and pledged loyalty to the Estrada administration.

"This is part of the destabilization move against the administration," Calinisan said, but he declined to elaborate.

He also discounted communist rebels as those who planted the bomb, noting that the mall's owner, Dennis Uy, never received demands for "revolutionary taxes" from the rebels.

"The perpetrators are the disgruntled elements in our society," he said.

Pandemonium also nearly broke out at the nearby Jenra Mall due to a bomb threat received shortly after the bomb at Saver's Mall was found. But bomb disposal experts found no bomb.

Rodriguez, however, said the perpetrators could merely be "riding on" the rash of bomb threats in Metro Manila.

"The suspects would not have called up to warn about the bomb if he was part of the terrorist moves in other parts of the country. He would have allowed the bomb to explode," he said.

So far, investigators have no leads on who could be behind the foiled bombing attempt. Rodriguez said employees of the McDonald's outlet will be asked to recall events before the bomb was found.

Calinisan said he has ordered the entire regional police force to work double time, 24 hours a day, tightly guarding bus terminals, vital public facilities and frequented places in Central Luzon, particularly shopping and market areas.

At the Clark Special Economic Zone, all vehicles are thoroughly checked at entry points, creating long traffic and triggering frequent arguments between motorists and security personnel.