Grenade blast in Munti; man killed, two injured

One person died and three others were injured yesterday, including one whose hand was blown away, after a grenade they were tinkering with inside their house in Muntinlupa City exploded.

Edgardo Ybanes, 23, sustained multiple shrapnel wounds in the body and head after the grenade he had earlier picked up and brought into his room suddenly blew up at about 11:30 a.m. He was sharing the room with the other victims.

The injured were identified as Randy Rojo, 25, Rolando Sitoy, 19, and the fatality’s younger brother Edwin, 18. Sitoy, who was holding the grenade at the time, lost his right hand.

Police Officer 3 Benjie Madriaga said that an hour earlier Edgardo found the grenade in a junk shop cart near their home in the squatter’s area of Upper Sucat and decided to bring it to their room.

Police said, however, that they are officially describing the explosive as an improvised bomb as explosive experts could not yet find the grenade’s safety pin. The surviving victims though describe the explosive to investigators as an "Atis type" grenade.

"Apparently, only Sitoy and Eduardo were directly in front of the bomb while the two others were a little farther away, it did not take long before it exploded," said Madriaga.

With the exception of Rojo, who is a factory worker, all the victims are vendors. They were brought to the Muntinlupa Medical Center.

Muntinlupa City police Investigation Division head Chief Inspector Luisito Bolivar said it is possible that the victims actually owned the bomb and ruled out any connection with an earlier explosion in nearby Barangay Putatan that killed one suspected bombmaker. – Jose Aravilla