NBI seizes chemicals used in making explosives in Sta. Cruz raid

OPERATIVES of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) seized large amounts of chemicals that could be used to make bombs and arrested one suspect during a raid in Sta. Cruz, Manila, early Friday.

Rogelio Mamauag, NBI anti-organized crime division head,  said 26 sacks of ammonium nitrate were seized from the house of Joel Jabonillio on P. Guevarra St. in Sta. Cruz, Manila.

Apart from Jabonillio, three others—a certain Willy, Belle and Malou Sanchez, the alleged vendors of the regulated chemicals, remain at large, he said.

He said Jabonillo owned the house where the chemicals were stored.

He explained that ammonium nitrate is also used in agriculture as fertilizer, but can be used to make improvised explosives when mixed with other substances.

He added that possession of the chemical requires a permit from the Philippine National Police Firearms and Explosives Division.

“The suspect was not able to present permit from the PNP on the regulated chemicals,” the NBI head agent said.

The NBI investigation report showed that the suspects followed a circuitous route before someone could buy the regulated chemicals.

A buyer has to pay first for the regulated chemicals at a sari-sari store in Libis Espina St. in Caloocan City to Belle Sanchez.

The buyer will then be asked to wait and after 30 minutes, a tricycle will arrive which will bring the buyer  to Jabonillio’s house in Manila, where the sacks of the regulated chemicals are stored.

After getting the chemicals, the buyer boards the tricycle again which will drop him off along Rizal Avenue.

Mamuag said an undercover agent bought two sacks of the regulated chemicals at P3,000 each during a “test-buy” surveillance.

He said these were examined at the NBI laboratory and were confirmed to be ammonium nitrate.

He added the agent posed as a fisherman who will use the chemicals “for blast fishing.”

Mamauag, however, said the seized chemicals did not pose any immediate danger to the area where it was found.

“It had to be processed first and mixed with other substance before it could harm,” he said.