Two hurt in Iloilo mall blast

ILOILO CITY — A "bomb" exploded in a shopping mall here yesterday, injuring two people, one of whom admitted it was a pillbox he meant to use on an enemy.

The victims were identified as Marvin Rafael, a janitor, and Jose Paulo Roldan, a car washer at the mall’s car park. Both sustained foot injuries and were admitted at the Iloilo Saint Paul’s Hospital.

In a radio interview, Rona Ganzon — whose husband, former senator Rodolfo Ganzon, was confined at the same hospital – said she did not see any relative taking care of Roldan, who has been taken in for police questioning.

Ganzon offered Roldan financial support and learned that he is from Valenzuela City.

Roldan told Ganzon that it was his pillbox, called "dalugdug," that exploded inside the second floor male comfort room of Marymart Mall’s new building at around 2:30 p.m.

According to Roldan, he made the pillbox for an enemy who stabbed a friend of his last Saturday night.

He had placed the pillbox on top of his cubicle’s divider, when it fell into the next cubicle and exploded. The bomb destroyed a cubicle and part of the ceiling.

Roldan is now detained at the Iloilo City Police Office detention cell. Police said the stabbing, which prompted Roldan to make the bomb, was the result of a gang war between carwash boys.

However, Senior Superintendent Policarpio Segubre told The STAR that based on initial investigations, the bomb was just improvised and not really a bomb.

Fearing it was a terrorist bombing, the authorities were surprised such a "bombing" would happen in Iloilo City, Segubre said, adding that this could simply be an act of sabotage to cause panic among the city’s residents.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas said that even before the bombing, they had already urged mall owners to conduct security checkpoints at the entrances to their properties. However, Treñas said he will make alternative plans to secure malls and other public places in the city. — With AFP