Bomb found near councilor’s house

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines – An Army bomb squad defused an improvised explosive planted in a trash can in front of the house of a municipal councilor in Gamu, Isabela town last Thursday, the day the town’s vice mayor was suspended by the provincial board for alleged grave abuse of authority.

Senior Inspector Calixto Labang, Gamu police chief, said councilor Jose Lora, a former ally of suspended Vice Mayor Fernando Cumigad, immediately sought the help of the Army’s 5th Infantry Division at Camp Upi when the explosive was found when he went out to buy something in a nearby bakery.

Labang, however, said the explosive was not powerful to cause destruction to life and property and appeared to have been planted to frighten Lora.

Lora is now an ally of Mayor Nestor Uy, who filed the administrative complaint against Cumigad, the former mayor.