Still no justice for kin of young Cotabato grenade blast victim

COTABATO CITY — Justice still eludes a poor couple who lost an eight-year-old child, a consistent honor student, in a grenade blast in a residential area here on the night of Sept. 26.

The explosion was the 16th in the city since January.

The victim, Dennis Uka, was laid to rest in a public cemetery here last Friday, attended by dozens of his schoolmates, friends and relatives.

Uka’s father, Herman, had incurred about P20,000 in debts for his son’s medicines while he was being treated for his 21 shrapnel wounds at the Cotabato Regional Medical Center.

"What is painful is that until now the police have not identified the culprit and the motive for the bombing near our house," Herman told reporters.

Uka, a pupil of the Cotabato Central Elementary School, was on his way home from a playmate’s house when someone hurled a Mark II fragmentation grenade from the flyover into the house of Akmad Abas, a barangay official.

The grenade, however, rolled from the roof, landed near Uka and exploded.

Uka died at dawn Monday, some two hours after doctors removed shrapnels that perforated his lungs and other vital organs.

The boy’s relatives, who rushed him to the hospital, heard him telling doctors how he wished to get well soon for him to join a scouting activity this coming week. He was a scout leader in his class and was known to be a cheerful, kind and polite child.

The grenade explosion was the third to rock Uka’s neighborhood since January. The police still have no solid clues on the blasts.

"When we buried his remains, I had the feeling that the identity of the bomber and the real reason why he did it were also been buried along with my son," said Herman, who works at the Cotabato City State Polytechnic College.

"Where is justice here? It’s absolutely painful," he added.