Bank blasts not part of destabilization

MANILA, Philippines - Metro Manila police director Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales assured the public yesterday that the recent explosions that occurred at the Office of the Ombudsman and three banks in the metropolis are not part of a plot to destabilize the government.

“These bombings and explosion incidents are isolated cases,” said Rosales, noting that police intelligence agents have not monitored any destabilization plan .

Rosales was reacting to reports circulating in Metro Manila that the bombing of the Ombudsman’s office and the recovery of bombs at the Department of Agriculture and a residential building in Quezon City, as well as the explosion at the Union Bank in Valenzuela City and the bombing of Allied Bank branches in Caloocan City and Valenzuela last Saturday night were part of diversionary tactics for a destabilization plot.

“Our intelligence agents are closely monitoring the field and we received no reports of any destabilization plot against the government,” said Rosales.

He said investigators from the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) believe that squatters that were recently displaced near the Ombudsman or henchmen of influential people who are being investigated by government prosecutors could have carried out the bombing.

Chief Superintendent Sammy Pagdilao, director of the Northern Police District (NPD), reported that no components of an improvised explosive device (IED) were recovered from the bombing sites at the Allied Bank branches.

He said the police crime laboratory is still analyzing the bomb fragments recovered at the crime scene.

Rosales said two men had been monitored tinkering with the bank’s ATM machine several minutes before the Union Bank explosion.

“So these bombings are not related to each other. We are digging into the incidents to bring the suspects to justice,” Rosales stressed.