3 killed, 10 hurt in grenade explosion in fiesta dance

COTABATO CITY — Three villagers were killed while 10 others were seriously wounded in a powerful grenade blast that rocked a fiesta dance party in a remote barangay in Pigkawayan, North Cotabato shortly before midnight last Friday.

Responding policemen and civilian volunteers managed to arrest the bombing suspect, a retired Army master sergeant named Leo Saiduque, who is now detained at the Pigkawayan police station.

Local police investigators identified the three fatalities as Leo Ugminales, 13; Dionel Setida, 14; and Jessie Villanis, 40, all residents of Barangay Kimarayag, a farming community in Pigkawayan, some 30 kilometers northeast of this city.

The victims were among dozens of villagers in a public dance held as a prelude to their barangay’s fiesta yesterday.

Investigators said a melee between two groups briefly disrupted the celebration, but the village leaders were able to pacify the troublemakers.

Saiduque, one of those involved in the incident, reportedly went home and returned to the benefit dance holding a Mark II grenade.

Witnesses said Saiduque tossed the explosive into the crowd and then ran away.

The 10 villagers badly wounded in the blast were rushed to hospitals in nearby towns.

"After the loud explosion, there was pandemonium. People were running everywhere. Before the explosion, we saw people fight and, after a while, the retired soldier returned already holding a grenade in his hand. Next was a loud explosion. Everything happened so fast," a witness, Adil Gurito, told Catholic radio station dxMS.

Gurito pointed to Saiduque as the one he saw tossing the grenade which he had pulled out from his pocket.

Policemen, backed by civilian volunteers, cornered Saiduque and a certain Renaldo Vicente while they were packing their clothes in a bag, ready to leave their village, some 30 minutes after the bombing.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol, chairman of the provincial peace and order council, ordered the police to immediately file criminal charges against Saiduque and his accomplices. — With Roel Pareño