By CHERYLL D. FIEL
Davao Today
DAVAO CITY– Police and the Task Force Davao are putting up mobile checkpoints to secure the entire city against threats after the discovery of two improvised explosive devices in two separate downtown areas on Thursday, February 26. A man leaving a package at the counter of the Unitop shopping mall on San Pedro street also triggered a false alarm on Friday.
Yusop Abdulhamid, a guard at the Unitop mall, said a man left a package at the Unitop counter minutes before the mall opened, creating a brief panic, prompting them to call the police. But the package only contained two DVD players and some electric wiring outside.
The day before, two bombs were found at about the same time in two separate downtown areas in the city: one, inside the female restroom at the City Hall ground floor at around 2:49 in the afternoon; and the other, beside the Central Bank building along Tionko Street.
davaotoday.com photo by Jose Hernani
Antonio Quiamco Jr., 43, a City Hall janitor told Davao Today that a woman informed him about a “suspicious-looking” package at the ground floor female restroom of City Hall.
Quiamco said he saw a rectangular-shaped package about 2 inches by 1 foot long when he came over.
“I was alarmed when I noticed that a blue and red wire was connected to it and strapped with a tape. So, I immediately told the guard on duty about it,” Quiamco said.
Ronald Lagrana, the City Hall guard on duty, told Davao Today that members of the bomb squad bringing canine dogs arrived shortly after he took over the shift at 3:00 pm.
davaotoday.com photo by Jose Hernani
Lagrana said the authorities moved the suspicious package towards the door at the back of the building facing Magallanes St., where he heard the loud explosion thirty minutes later.
The female restroom at the ground floor is a common facility used by employees. It is also open for use by the public at any time of the day.
At about the same time that the City Hall bomb was found, a passerby noticed a suspicious-looking package along the sidewalks of Tionko street near the Central Bank building.
The package, also an improvised explosive device (IED) of similar make, was also detonated by authorities later.
Duterte in an ABS-CBN television interview late Thursday afternoon said the bombs were identical. He did not elaborate. He said they were still trying to find out the motives behind the incident.
davaotoday.com photo by Jose Hernani
Duterte said he was supposed to meet with top security officials in the city to discuss “something important,” when the incident came up.
Duterte announced he would assume the post of deputized head of the Davao City Police, a post he relinquished at the start of the Commission on Human Rights’ (CHR) probe into the summary killings in the city. Duterte first mentioned he is assuming the post again after reports that a businessman had been kidnapped in the city. (Cheryll D. Fiel/ davaotoday.com)
