10 sacks of TNT bound for Davao seized at North Harbor

A special anti-terrorism unit from the Philippine Coast Guard has seized 10 sacks filled with chemical believed to contain TNT components, officials said yesterday.

The cache was stashed at a warehouse at Manila’s North Harbor by an unknown consignee and was discovered during a routine inspection by sea marshals using bomb-sniffing dogs late last week, the Coast Guard said in a report.

The 10 sacks, marked FOF-TH Norel Nature Nutrition, contained substances "in white powdered form with a very strong acidic odor," the report said.

Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Armand Balilo said initial tests conducted by the WG & A shipping firm, which owns the warehouse, showed the sacks contained traces of TNT.

He said they are still conducting additional tests to confirm the initial findings. Samples of the suspicious shipment were taken to the Philippine National Police Firearms and Explosives Division and the PNP Crime Laboratory at Camp Crame for further testing.

Asked if there was a possibility that the shipment could have been used by terrorists to manufacture bombs, Balilo said "anything is possible."

The cache was to be shipped to Davao City and officials were trying to track down its owner, the Coast Guard said.

"Government intelligence units were informed of the aborted shipment in order to help determine linkages to terrorism," it said.

The shipping firm that owned the warehouse also had a ferry that was blown up last year by Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf, killing more than 100 people. It was the country’s worst terror attack.

Since last year’s ferry bombing, security on inter-island ferries has been significantly tightened.

In 2003, Muslim militants bombed a wharf and an international airport terminal in Davao, killing more than 30 people and wounding around 200 others.

According to www.wikipedia.org, TNT or trinitrotoluene is a pale yellow crystalline compound that is part of many explosive mixtures.

In its refined form, TNT is very stable, and unlike nitroglycerin, it is insensitive to friction, blows or jarring. This means that it must be set off by a detonator. It does not react with metals or absorb water, and so unlike dynamite it can be safely stored for many years. It is, however, readily acted upon by alkalis to form unstable compounds that are very sensitive to heat and impact. — With Jaime Laude, AFP