5 bar workers hurt in grenade blast

MANILA, Philippines - Five workers of a girlie bar in Caloocan City were wounded when a driver of a passenger jeepney reportedly hurled a grenade at them Saturday night.

Guest relations officers Gwedelyn Cornete, 24, Jenelyn Tungla, 29, and Rosalyn Favilar, 23; floor manager Marlyn Velarde, 41; and bouncer Rodel Macario, 37, all employees of Lady Ash KTV bar in Barangay 175, Camarin, were still confined yesterday at the East Avenue Medical Center due to shrapnel wounds.

Senior Police Officer 1 Noli Albis said most of the victims’ injuries were in the lower extremities “but all of them are now in stable condition.”

Albis said the victims were chatting outside the bar at about 10 p.m. a man driving a passenger jeepney slowed down and threw the grenade. The jeepney sped toward Bagong Silang.

Chief Inspector Ronald Perilla, Caloocan Substation 5 commander, said a witness was able to jot down the plate number of the jeepney, PXW-498.

“We were able to identify the driver of the jeepney and found out that he is a resident of San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan,” Perilla said.

At around 5 a.m. yesterday, a team led by Perilla, Senior Police Officer 2 Joselito delos Reyes and Albis arrested Rex Regalario, 40, at his house in Bulacan.

Albis said Regalario denied involvement in the incident, saying he only passed by the area at the time of the blast, which also wounded one of his passengers. “But he could not name the wounded passenger and could not also tell us where the passenger was brought for medication,” Albis said.