Trader killed in Pajero blast

A fuel oil trader was killed while his driver and a female bystander were injured after an improvised pipe bomb exploded inside the victim’s Mitsubishi Pajero in crawling traffic as they passed by the Karuhatan public market yesterday morning in Valenzuela City.

Senior Superintendent Jose Marcelo, city police chief, identified the fatality as Peter Dy, 55, bunker fuel oil distributor and recycled oil trader, of Tanada street, Karuhatan, Valenzuela City.

Dy was pronounced dead on arrival at around 12:27 p.m. yesterday by attending physician Anelle Alviar of the Fatima Medical Center (FMC), where the victims were taken for treatment.

Dy’s driver of eight months, John Fajardo, 25, survived the blast with minor wounds in the right thigh, right arm and right cheek. Mary Jane Peron, 37, of Don Simon Compound, Karuhatan, who was walking by the roadside when the blast occurred, sustained a laceration in the head but has been declared safe.

Scene of the Crime Operations (SOCO) medico-legal officer Chief Inspector Filemon Porciuncula said Dy succumbed to loss of blood due to multiple blast injuries in the arms and legs. He found some 10 shrapnel pieces just in the left arm.

Chief Inspector Rio Gatacilo, Northern Police District Office SOCO chief, confirmed after forensic examination of the shrapnel pieces that the explosive used was an improvised G.I. (galvanized iron) pipe bomb.

He said the bomb apparently exploded from the floor on the passenger side of the victim’s red late model Pajero where he was seated.

Gatacilo said they recovered inside the vehicle shrapnel and iron fragments, six twin A batteries one of which was found stuck in the car ceiling and parts of a shattered timer.

SOCO operatives said the victim’s wife, Adel, refused to have Dy’s body autopsied and had it taken to the Paz Funeral Homes for disposition.

When interviewed by the STAR at the FMC emergency Room, Fajardo said they were on their way home at around 9:30 a.m. after buying groceries at the South Supermarket. They were traveling slowly along the Karuhatan public market along the Macarthur Highway when the bomb exploded.

Police have advanced several theories to explain the motive for the explosion which they said was really meant to kill Dy.

Family sources said Dy allegedly has been getting death threats prior to the incident. A son, who will not be named, told probers that the same Pajero was allegedly stolen last week by unidentified persons, but was returned some six hours later.

Sources said the car thieves may have duplicated the car keys and had Dy tailed until yesterday’s incident. At the supermarket, both Dy and Fajardo alighted from the vehicle, the latter waiting for his boss to come out from the store which took some 15 to 20 minutes, enough time for suspects to have planted the bomb inside the vehicle.

Sources close to the family also confirmed that a son and a daughter were kidnapped last March 3 in Ortigas, Pasig but were released unharmed in less than 24 hours later. The source said no ransom was demanded.

"Tinakot lang," he said. The family declined to talk to media requesting some privacy in their hour of grief. – With Pete Laude