Vintage explosives at Lagundi Reef

CEBU, Philippines - At least 20 assorted vintage explosives and what appeared to be parts of rockets were retrieved from the depths of the Lagundi Reef off the coast of barangay Poblacion in Talisay City yesterday morning.

The retrieval was made after businessman Peter Coleman, a US Army veteran, called the attention of Talisay City Councilor Shirley Belleza on the dangers posed by the presence of unexploded ordnance, called UXO in military parlance, in a protected reef.

“No matter how it looks, no matter if it has thousand holes on its body, these are still dangerous,” Coleman said, adding that WWII weapons technology is not as safe as the weapons technology these days.

Belleza, chairperson of the Talisay City Council committee on tourism and historical heritage, was also alarmed of reports that fisher folk in the area are retrieving some of the ordnance.

Coleman said, a weapons expert, said that despite their corroded state, the explosive charge may still be intact and can still be volatile like a newly-manufactured bomb. He said people can get hurt if not diffused or disposed of properly.

Yesterday, Coleman joined members of the Cebu Provincial Police Office Special Reaction Unit bomb disposal team, Cebu City and Mandaue City Special Weapons and Tactics and local divers and environmentalists in retrieving the ordnance from the Lagundi Reef.

Last week, Coleman and scholars of the Talisay City College who underwent swimming and diving trainings found the vintage bombs at the reef.

Yesterday, the retrieval team discovered that some of the vintage bombs are already covered with corals, thus, they chose not to remove them for fear that moving them might trigger an explosion.

Belleza initially wanted to display the vintage finds at a museum but Chief Insp. Arnel Banzon of the Cebu City Police Special Weapons and Tactics advised otherwise, saying the same would be very risky and dangerous to the public.

Lagundi Reef covers five hectares of the seawaters off barangay Poblacion, which can be reached in five minutes with motor banca.

Barangay Poblacion is said to be where the first wave of US Armed Forces landed to liberate Cebu on March 26, 1945 from the Japanese Imperial Army.

Historical reports have it that the Americans lost 410 soldiers and had nearly 2,000 wounded in that battle against almost 6,000 Japanese soldiers. — Edwin Ian Melecio with Brenda Batuto/JMO(THE FREEMAN NEWS)