Bomb components found in apartment of policewoman, Abu suspect

Supt. Cristina Nobleza and Reneer Dongon. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/LEO UDTOHAN

CEBU CITY — Police recovered the components of an improvised explosive device inside an apartment allegedly rented by Supt. Ma. Cristina Nobleza and Reneirlou Dongon on Panglao Island, Bohol.

Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), said the owner of the apartment identified as Paulino Apduhan turned over to the police on Monday evening the following items: a C-4 plastic explosive, a detonating cord, a blasting cap, and a blasting cap kit.

Initial investigation showed that Nobleza and Dongon (identified as Reneer Lou Dongon in earlier reports from the Philippine National Police) arrived in Panglao  last April 17, two days before the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ trade ministers meetings and barely a week after the gunfight between government troopers and members of the Abu Sayyaf Group in Inabanga, Bohol.

“Part of our investigation is intended to establish what was the purpose in possessing components of an explosive device,” Taliño said in a phone interview.

Nobleza, Dongon and two others were arrested on Saturday evening after they refused to stop at a checkpoint in Clarin town in Bohol.

Taliño said Nobleza and Dongon were flown from Bohol to Manila on Tuesday morning.

They will be detained in Camp Crame pending the resolution of the charges filed against them at the prosecutor’s office in Bohol.

“They are considered high risk inmates,” Taliño said.  SFM/rga

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