Junkshop owner's widow: Cops killed my husband

MANILA, Philippines - The widow of a Taguig junkshop owner who died in an explosion Wednesday afternoon is blaming three policemen for “forcing” her husband to open the “bomb of death.”

“Why did you kill my husband?” Liezl Daguio said yesterday. “They should be held responsible. They knew better.”

She said the three policemen – Police Officers 2 Arnold Mayo and Elizalde Bisaya, and PO3 Jose Torralba, all members of the police’s Special Action Force-Explosives Ordnance Division (SAF-EOD) – should have “been more careful, so others would not be killed.”

Liezl’s husband, Cris, and a member of their household, Liza Grimaldo, died in the blast, which also killed Bisaya and Torralba. Ten others were hurt in the explosion.

According to Liezl, three men, who she initially thought were soldiers, came to their junkshop in Lower Bicutan at about 7 a.m. Wednesday, to ask for some equipment. The men were carrying a “foot-long (piece of) metal that looked like a bullet with a tail,” she said.

Liezl said just looking at the metal piece made her feel “scared.”

She said Cris was not home at the time so the men – later identified as Mayo, Bisaya, and Torralba – left but returned at past 2 p.m. “after learning that my husband was home.”

“They kept trying to open what looked like a bullet,” Liezl said. When the policemen failed, she said she heard one of them order her husband to open the piece using a welder.

Liezl said her heart leaped because she knew her husband would die. Torralba’s wife also warned the policemen, but the three did not listen, she said.

Cris turned on the welder and obeyed the policemen. Their bodies were later found slumped in front of Cris’ junkshop. Only Mayo survived.

Liezl said her husband did not want to handle the metal piece but the policemen insisted. “They would not leave, what can I do?” she quoted Cris as saying.

Not a single tear fell from Liezl’s eyes after the blast. She said she could not even go out and look at her husband’s body “because I already know he’s dead. He’s dead.”

Liezl’s father does not know whether to blame the policemen or his son-in-law. “Cris should not have opened it,” he said. “The policemen brought the bomb of death.”

He added that Cris was a father of five children. “His youngest is still feeding from the bottle,” he said.

Taguig police chief Senior Superintendent Tomas Apolinario said criminal and administrative charges may be filed against Mayo.

“The SAF commander said their action was not legal, not official. They said they were just going to the bank,” he said, adding that the tragedy was caused by human error.

Investigators have yet to determine what kind of ammunition exploded and from where it came.