Cavite grenade blast a retaliatory act?

Police are investigating the possible hand of the remnants of the so-called Radam-Mostrales kidnapping syndicate in the grenade explosion near Camp Pantaleon Garcia in Imus, Cavite last Wednesday afternoon.

Senior Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao Jr., Cavite police director, said his probers are determining whether the grenade-throwing was a retaliatory act by the syndicate whose three members were slain in what police said was a legitimate encounter last Sept. 18.

He was referring to the killing of kidnapping suspects Diosdado Santos, Rolando Patinio and Eugene Radam in an alleged shootout with members of the Cavite police and the elite Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER).

Citing her initial findings, forensic pathologist Raquel Fortun said Santos could have been silenced. But the police and the National Bureau of Investigation belied the results of her autopsy on the suspect’s body.

The grenade exploded at about 4:30 p.m. right in front of an old Spanish cuartel which the local units of the Narcotics Group and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group are occupying. Nobody was hurt.

"We are not also discounting the possibility that a vintage bomb triggered the explosion," Pagdilao said. Components of the explosive retrieved at the blast site have been brought to the PNP Crime Laboratory for analysis.

Pagdilao said they have ruled out the theory that the New People’s Army could have been behind the incident.

"It is not the signature of the NPA and they have not claimed responsibility for the incident just as they always do," he said.