Lawyer, partner, 2 others charged in QC explosions

The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) has charged a lawyer, his live-in partner and two others for the twin explosions in a residential compound that wounded a bystander, destroyed two cars and damaged four houses on June 7.

Complaints for frustrated murder and malicious mischief were filed Thursday in the city prosecutor’s office against lawyer Jesus Abeleda Jr., his partner and two John Does who were seen at the blast site, according to QCPD director Supt. Richard Albano.

Ruling out an earlier theory that it was a terrorist attack, Albano said the respondents were charged based on circumstantial evidence and the statements given by a couple whose ownership of the property was being challenged by Abeleda, a former tenant in the compound.

Joel Tating and his wife Charmaine Joy earlier told investigators that Abeleda had threatened them on different occasions following court hearings on their ongoing property dispute.

Around 2 a.m. on June 7, explosions wrecked two cars—a blue Opel Vectra and a green Hyundai Matrix—then undergoing repairs at a shop owned by Tating on Ilocos Sur Street, Barangay Ramon Magsaysay. The blasts also shattered the glass windows of nearby houses, while a male bystander sustained cuts from the shards.

Albano said the two unidentified respondents, believed to be the bombers, were earlier seen in the area with Abeleda.

A security camera recorded their arrival at the site just before the explosion while two eyewitnesses saw them running away immediately after, he added.

The QCPD’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit invited Abeleda for questioning, but the lawyer did not show up, Albano said.

Traces of a chemical used in making ammunition were found at the blast site, suggesting that an improvised explosive device was used, according to another police official.

Insp. Noel Sublay, head of the QCPD’s Explosives and Ordnance Division, was referring to dinitrotoluene, which he described as a precursor to trinitrotoluene (TNT) used in dynamites and a highly-toxic, “nonregulated” chemical also used as an ammo propellant.