The police raided a clandestine dynamite factory in the middle of a seaside slum area in Navotas City Thursday night.
Northern Police District director Chief Superintendent Pedro Tango identified the alleged owner of the improvised explosives factory as Artemio Obeja, 54, a resident of Barangay Sipac in Navotas City.
The lawmen confiscated 37 bottles of finished improvised explosives, 45 pieces of blasting caps, more than one sack of ammonium nitrate, a wok containing ammonium nitrate and several empty bottles.
“We have also impounded five fishing boats owned by the suspect wherein we recovered from them a total of 24 bottles more of dynamites,” Chief Inspector Arturo Paras, NPD intelligence and investigation division deputy chief, told The STAR.
Paras said the fishing boats have no license to operate.
Early last week, Tango directed Senior Superintendent Rafael Santiago Jr., chief of the NPD intelligence and investigation division, to verify reports that explosives used for dynamite fishing in Manila Bay are being manufactured at one of Navotas’ coastal villages.
NPD chief investigator Senior Inspector Augusto Mateo said Obeja has 50 men who make dynamites and engage in blast fishing.
Mateo said Obeja’s factory is located in the middle of a shantytown on the seashore and is two meters above water, allowing his “clients” to dock their boats under the factory.
The fish Obeja’s men gathered were sold to Market 3 of the Navotas Fish Port Complex, Mateo said. Obeja refused to answer questions when interviewed in his cell.