Grenade found near Intramuros golf course

As a bomb scare continues to grip the metropolis, a live fragmentation grenade was discovered outside the Intramuros Golf Club yesterday morning.

The Western Police District said the M26 type grenade was discovered by Jose Dumdumaya, an employee of the golf club as he was sweeping the sidewalk near Hole No. 1 at about 8:15 a.m.

Police said Dumdumaya saw the grenade sticking out of the ground near Aduana Street.

Fortunately, the grenade did not explode and was safely secured by responding elements of the WPD’s Explosives and Ordnance Division. Police are still trying to determine who planted the grenade and the possible motives.

Elements of the WPD’s EOD have been kept busy responding to bomb threats. Most, however, turned out to be just prank calls or false alarms.

Last Friday, WPD-EOD elements rushed to the Basilica of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo to defuse a suspected bomb inside a plastic bag which was left on one of the church’s pews. Luckily, the bag only contained leftover food, clothes and a piece of cardboard which all belonged to a 70-year-old homeless woman.

After responding to the church bomb threat, the EOD elements then rushed to the fifth floor of the Manila City Hall to sweep for possible explosives. Fortunately, no bomb was found.

At around lunch time, the team rushed to the Professional Regulations Commission building at Manila’s University Belt, after a caller told the Office of the Commission Chairman that a bomb was planted inside the building. No bomb was found after an orderly evacuation and sweeping of the building. – Mike Frialde