Boy, 15, admits to 2 Manila bombings

MANILA, Philippines - A 15-year-old boy confessed yesterday that he blew up bombs in a mall and a market in Manila.

The boy, a student at a Chinese high school in Sta. Cruz, is being held at the Manila Police District’s Women’s and Children’s Protection Desk (WCPD) after a businessman told police that the person responsible for the explosion at the Divisoria Mall on April 26 asked for his help so he could apologize, said Chief Inspector Erwin Margarejo, who heads the MPD’s public information office.

He said he blew up a homemade bomb – a pipe stuffed with ingredients from firecrackers – in the mall’s third-floor restroom. No one was hurt in the incident, according to police. Investigators earlier attributed the explosion to a “five star” firecracker.

The teenager also told The STAR he blew up another bomb at the Arranque market “sometime last year” because he was “mad at himself.”

“I am embarrassed by what I did. I do not want to hurt the feelings of my parents, so I am apologizing to those I hurt,” he said in Filipino.

Chief Inspector Lucille Faycho, MPD-WCPD chief, said they are still trying to determine what case they would file against the boy.

At the MPD headquarters, the boy made his confession in the presence of a lawyer his parents had sent. The boy’s parents were not present.

MPD officer-in-charge Senior Superintendent Robert Po said they are also looking into the boy’s connection to the pillbox explosion at the Mall of Asia’s parking lot last month. The boy has not confessed to the MOA blast.

Po said the boy designed the bombs only to cause heavy damage, but “according to our investigators, (they) could kill.”

Bully gets the girl

The boy said he wanted to blow up a bomb in his school to show his classmate, a bully, what he is capable of doing.

He said he turned to making bombs after learning that the girl he had been courting for the past four years was dating the bully. All three teenagers are classmates.

“I loved her for four years… then I found out she was dating an arrogant playboy,” he said.

The teenager said he started spending time by himself on the roof of their residential building, learning to make crude bombs. He said he started making bombs after noticing the difference between the explosion of two types of firecrackers, a “piccolo” and a five star.

He said he initially experimented with his toys, stuffing them with aluminum and magnesium. He later made a trip to Bulacan to “buy real explosives.”

The boy did not say how he learned to make bombs, but police officers are trying to determine if he learned it through the Internet.

A senior police official told The STAR that the boy would be staying at the MPD-WCPD until a case is filed against him, but “he is most likely to be turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.” – With Non Alquitran