Mandaluyong City Hall arson try foiled

Police thwarted yesterday an attempt to set the Mandaluyong City Hall on fire following the recovery of three fire bombs in one of its offices.

The "crude bombs," placed in three ice candy wrappers and with two protruding electrical wires, were found planted near the City Health Office (CHO) stockroom at about 10:57 a.m. yesterday.

City Hall employees Rodolfo Balter and Artemio Santos, discovered the bombs near a window-type airconditioner.

Local residents criticized the police for not properly cordoning off the area while waiting for the arrival of bomb experts from the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT).

"If no bomb expert was around, the police should have cordoned off the area to prevent people from coming near the site," said a former police official noting that the local police failed to warn residents transacting business at the city hall of the presence of the bombs.

But Senior Superintendent Sakurno Ikbala, the local police chief, claimed his men had done everything to secure the area and scour other parts of the city hall for other bombs.

The crude bombs were taped on a three-by-four inch cardboard. The gunpowder was apparently taken from firecrackers, said Ikbala.

Experts said the bombs needed dry cell batteries as triggering mechanism to explode. But the bombs were likely placed to set-off a fire, experts said.

Police are digging deeper into the motive behind the planting of the fire bombs on the first day of the EDSA People’s Power I revolt anniversary celebration.

Mayor Benhur Abalos Jr. and his father, Benjamin Abalos Sr., chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), were both key players in the EDSA I and II uprisings. – Non Alquitran