Bomb experts disarmed a “low explosive device” placed near the fence of the National Food Authority office in Taguig City, Southern Police District (SPD) director Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales said yesterday.
Rosales said they are looking into a possible crisis within the NFA that could have prompted the suspects to leave the bomb outside the NFA building along DBP Avenue in the FTI complex in Barangay Western Bicutan Thursday around 4:30 p.m.
“We will be checking all possible angles. We will see if there were illegal dismissal of employees there and try to relate it to the bomb left near the NFA office,” he said, adding that there could also be traders who are on good terms with NFA officials.
The police dismissed speculation that the bomb could be intended for Diana Negroponte, wife of United States Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who was invited to inspect the newly completed housing units of the Habitat for Humanity in the area Thursday morning.
“The project site is 500 meters away from the NFA office. Mrs. Negroponte was in the area only until 10:30 a.m. and the bomb was meant to blow up around 4:30 p.m. when the three young boys stumbled upon it,” Rosales said.
The three boys were sorting through a garbage pile when they heard a cell phone ringing. They found the cell phone inside a styrofoam container together with a number of wires and a small plastic bottle of ammonium nitrate.
Taguig police chief Superintendent Alfred Sotto Corpus said the boys immediately reported their discovery to the building’s security guard, who called the police.
Members of the Taguig’s Explosives and Ordnance Division (EOD) arrived in the area and disarmed the bomb.
“The bomb, however, is not really capable of exploding, an initial report by the EOD said. The components needed to produce a bomb were all found in the styrofoam food packaging but the manner in which these were assembled was not correct. It was the (work) of an amateur,” Corpus said. – Rhodina Villanueva