5 injured in Mandaluyong wake pillbox explosion

Five people were hurt when a pillbox exploded in their midst while they were attending a wake in Mandaluyong City yesterday.

One of three men who lobbed the pillbox, Gilbert Rabe, 24, jobless and residing under the Mandaluyong-Makati City bridge in Barangay Ilaya, was arrested by barangay tanods while trying to flee the scene.

Men of Superintendent Sukarno Ikbala, Mandaluyong City police chief, are presently hunting down Rabe’s two other companions.

Ikbala identified three of those injured as Napoleon Clarigo, 26, a contract worker; Raul Escudero, 30, a printing press employee and barangay chairman Carmelito Gonzaga of Ilaya. They were brought to the Mandaluyong City Medical Center. The names of two other victims were not yet available.

Ikbala said Rabe and his companions were asleep in their makeshift homes when roused by a loud noise coming from the wake at the Barangay Hall of Ilaya in Barangka Drive at about 1:30 a.m.

Without a word, Rabe and his companions lobbed the pillbox and started running after it exploded, the police said.

Police said the explosion was so strong that the glass windows of a nearby building were broken.

Although slightly wounded, Gonzaga chased and collared Rabe, who is presently detained at the Mandaluyong City detention center.

Ikbala said Rabe will be charged with multiple frustrated murder and assault upon the person of an agent in authority at the city’s prosecutor’s office today. – Non Alquitran