Another MPD station, another dud grenade

MOTORCYCLE-RIDING men lobbed a grenade that failed to explode at the Pandacan station of the Manila Police District (MPD) on Monday night.

Supt. Edilberto Leonardo, the station commander, said they were looking at the latest incident as possibly the handiwork of drug dealers in the city who wanted to exact “vengeance.”

“There has been a pattern. This always happens every time a police station intensifies its campaign against illegal drugs,” Leonardo said.

Around 9:45 p.m. on Monday, two men on a motorbike were seen throwing the grenade in front of Station 10 on Jesus Street, he said. The attackers were apparently aiming particularly at an MPD patrol car parked in front of the station.

“The back rider, after throwing the grenade, pulled out a gun and fired a shot in the air,” Leonardo said in a report.

A number of MPD stations and precincts had been targeted by similar attacks since 2014. In all cases, the grenades did not go off.

Station 1 (Raxabago) was attacked once in April and on Oct. 6 and 15, 2014. The same threat was encountered by the Smokey Mountain precinct under its jurisdiction on March 24 that  year.

Station 6 (Sta. Ana) was attacked on April 8, 2015.

On Feb. 2, 2015, a grenade was found at the parking slot reserved for then Station 7 (Abad Santos) commander, Supt. Joel Villanueva.  It was discovered two hours after another grenade exploded about a hundred meters away from the station. Aie Balagtas See