Probers suspect 2 separate blasts in Catbalogan related
CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar — Two separate explosions, which investigators suspect were the work of the same persons, rocked this city on Friday morning, one of the blasts injuring a teenager and a six-year-old boy.
The first explosion, said to caused by improvised explosive device, happened at 1:30 a.m., destroying the fence at the house of Barangay Chairperson Ma. Elfa de Jesus.
Shrapnel from the blast hit 17-year-old Faith Rosales, who was waiting for a ride home to Barangay 10 in Catbalogan, and six-year-old BJ Bernate, who was sleeping outside his parents’s house near the explosion site.
The injured were brought to the hospital for treatment.
About 20 minutes later, a grenade exploded outside the gate of the home of Lucio Bacarra Pacle in Barangay Silanga. Pacle is the municipal administrator of Hinabangan town in Samar.
Nobody was hurt in the second blast, the police said.
Article continues after this advertisementSupt. Edwin Barbosa, chief of the Catbalogan City Police Station, both explosions were the work of two men in black jackets and ski masks on a motorcycle.
Article continues after this advertisementThis information was in his report to the Police Regional Office in Eastern Visayas in Palo town, Leyte.
In this report, Barbosa said investigators believed that the explosions were perpetrated by the same persons even if the two barangays were 10 km apart.
Chief Supt. Elmer Beltejar, Eastern Visayas police director, said a special task force would be formed to investigate the two incidents.
“We are stepping up security measures for everyone’s safety,” Beltejar said. “All activities in the area remain normal. We will not allow lawless elements to derail our path towards peace.”
He also ordered that checkpoints be set up in areas leading to airports and seaports in an attempt to arrest the perpetrators.
Beltejar has earlier ordered strengthening of security measures following the spate of violence that rocked Samar, particularly in Calbayog City and San Jorge town.
At least 10 shooting incidents had been reported in Calbayog since January this year. /atm
