Police detonate ‘Santa’ bomb right inside Crame

Tension rose at Camp Crame yesterday when police blew up a suspicious package carried into the national police headquarters by a taxi.

The taxi driver was held for questioning, but the box turned out to contain a harmless clay figure of Santa Claus, said Philippine National Police spokesman Senior Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome.

"Our camp guards noticed a box inside the taxi and intercepted it," he said. "They became suspicious when the taxi driver told them he did not know where the box came from. So they destroyed the package to break up the parts inside."

Cab driver Cesar Cabatu said he immediately proceeded to Camp Crame at around 8:45 a.m. when he noticed that a still unidentified female passenger had left a box in the trunk.

When Cabatu told camp guards at Gate 1 that he did not know what was inside the box, explosives experts were called in.

The box was gingerly brought to the camp’s parade ground, where dozens of police officers performing drills were ordered away as a precaution. Dozens of milling journalists were also told to stay back.

The box was placed in a drum and detonated with a small charge. When nothing happened, explosives experts carefully looked inside the box and found a clay Santa Claus figurine still intact.

"If you see such kind of packages unattended, it would be better if you report it to the police," Bartolome said. He urged people not to inspect the packages themselves.

Police and soldiers have stepped up security across the country after a series of bomb blasts in Zamboanga City and Metro Manila killed 23 people – including a Philippine Marine and the US Green Beret commando – this month.

Authorities suspect Islamic militants were behind the string of attacks.

Security has been tight at Camp Crame because of the recent bomb attacks that had rocked the country this month. Some officers said it would have been a big embarrassment if a bomb attack were to happen inside the sprawling police camp itself.

"We are implementing continuing security procedures inside the camp, which includes inspection of all vehicles and people who enter the camp. In cases of unattended packages, we have to inspect them," he said.

Five suspected Abu Sayyaf members were indicted last week for the blasts that ripped through a Zamboanga City shopping district on Oct. 17 and an explosion near a Roman Catholic shrine on Oct. 20 also in the city that killed a Philippine Marine.

The five were caught making bombs when police stormed their hideout near Zamboanga City.

Police said the suspects also told police that their Abu Sayyaf confederates were behind an Oct. 2 blast, also in Zamboanga, that killed an American soldier and three Filipinos.

Officials believe the Abu Sayyaf carried out the attacks with help from Indonesia-based Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiyah.

Both groups have been linked to the al-Qaeda network of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Jemaah Islamiyah is believed to be responsible for a bomb that tore through a passenger bus in Quezon City on Oct. 18, killing two people and wounding several others.

Officials also suspect that the group was behind the Rizal Day bombings in Metro Manila. The Dec. 30, 2000, blasts – which hit a passenger train, a bus and some other targets – killed 22 people and left more than 100 injured. — With AFP