Grenade fired at offices of Japanese consultants

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — A rifle grenade was fired at a building housing the offices of Japanese consultants at a container port in Misamis Oriental but no was hurt in the explosion, police said yesterday.

A man aboard a pick-up truck fired the 40-millimeter grenade at the Pacific Consultant International building at the shipping terminal in Tagoloan town late Sunday, Chief Superintendent Manuel Raval, outgoing Region 10 police director, said.

The building, which houses the offices of Japanese consultants to firms operating at the port, suffered slight damage to the roof but none of the nine Japanese nationals there were harmed as they were on a lower floor at the time.

The Japanese consultants are working for three companies — Mitsubishi, Kawasaki and Tuyo — all involved in the multimillion-peso Mindanao Container Port Terminal project in Tagoloan.

Tagoloan Mayor Yevgeny Vincete Emano said the attack may have been carried out by disgruntled workers or groups angry at the Japanese for not choosing them as subcontractors in construction projects.

Emano said he has also received reports that the Japanese contractors were not treating their workers fairly.

"I hope that if this is true, they will change their ways," he said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the incident, although military sources said they were checking whether communist guerrillas active in the area were involved.

Emano expressed hope that the incident would have no negative effect on his town’s economy or that of Misamis Oriental or Cagayan de Oro City.

Security guards at the Pacific Consultant building told Bombo Radyo that they could not identify the attacker or the driver of the pick-up truck because it was raining hard then and all they could see were the tail lights.

"All we heard was a bang," one of them said in the vernacular. — With AFP