‘Anak ng kamote!’ mystery box jams Edsa

MANILA, Philippines—Son of a gun.

Motorists plying the northbound side of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa) near Magallanes must have uttered swear words on their way to work Friday morning after they got stuck in a traffic jam.

All because of a suspicious-looking box on the roadside.

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) officials and the police stopped all northbound vehicles at the Edsa-Magallanes area a little after 8 a.m. after traffic enforcers found an unattended box at the northbound loading bay near the gate of Dasmariñas Village, Makati City.

“The MMDA traffic enforcers who found the suspicious-looking box decided to call the Makati bomb squad, who took charge of it,” MMDA Metrobase Information Officer Vincent Lizada said in a telephone interview.

By then, the tail end of the traffic jam had stretched to Tramo in Pasay City.

Bomb-sniffing dog

The scene became more tense as agents from the Makati Explosive Ordnance Division (EOD) arrived to seal off the area and take charge of the box.

SPO3 Enrique Fernandez, officer in charge of the Makati Bomb Squad, said a bomb-sniffing dog was brought in to determine if there was an explosive in the box.

By sitting down near the box the dog would indicate if there was a bomb inside.

“The dog did not sit down,” Fernandez said.

Nothing funny

To be doubly sure, members of the bomb squad dragged the box to a clear area, using a rope.

Then they saw what was in it.

“When the box was slightly open, the operatives saw it was filled with kamoteng kahoy (cassava),” Fernandez said. “Apparently, the box fell out of a bus that was passing through.”

The bomb squad found nothing funny about what happened.

Waiting for owner

“As usual, in cases like this, we remained on alert. We don’t want to be caught off-guard,” said Fernandez.

As of Friday afternoon, the box was still with the Makati police.

“We brought it to our headquarters and we will be waiting for someone to claim it,” Fernandez said.