Residents scared, classes canceled due to ‘blasts’

Loud explosions that shook the grounds of barangay Manipis, Talisay City sent residents running outside their residences and caused the cancellation of classes at 9 a.m. yesterday.

Barangay Captain  Pedro Cabiluna said the residents and students thought there was another earthquake.

Cabiluna said he told his constituents to calm down and ordered the elementary and high school principals to suspend classes and let the students go home.

Cabiluna said they first heard an explosion and experienced shaking of the ground at 9 a.m. and another followed after an hour.

Talisay City Councilor Danny Caballero, Cabiluna and the police conducted an inspection to locate the origin of the blast.

Cabiluna said that they received reports that the explosion came from a blasting activity of a mining.

Manipis is a mountain barangay of Talisay City and the boundary to Toledo City.

But Cabiluna said he finds the explosions unusual as the mining company usually conducts their blasting activities away from houses.

PO2 Dennis Onasin said they have not receive reports of injuries or damage.

He added they will talk to the mining firm to find out if the explosions really came from their blasting works.

In Mandaue City, men riding a motorcycle in tandem lobbed a grenade at an auto repair shop on Sacris Road Extension, barangay Tipolo yesterday dawn.

Nobody was injured but the blast damaged Brabu Auto Repair Shop and several vehicles that were in the shop for repair.

Shop owner Melecio Anoos, 51, was in his residence in barangay Tabok when the incident happened and only Ramil Mamac, the caretaker was around.

SPO1 Remegio Arciaga, Subangdaku police investigator said that Mamac was still up at around 1 a.m. and was outside the shop when two men on board a motorcycle arrived.

They threw a hand grenade about five meters away from Mamac which exploded when it hit the ground.

Mamac was not hit since the car that was in the shop for repair covered him from the blast.

“The grenade exploded under a vehicle that was in the shop for repair,” Arciaga said.

Personal grudge is being considered as the motive of the attack and police are looking at the possibility that a customer who was refused by Anoos of his services could be behind the attack.

Last month, unidentified men also strafed the shop. /Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos and CORRESPONDENT Gabriel C. Bonjoc