Third grenade lobbed at building in Manila

MANILA, Philippines - A grenade “designed to destroy life and property” was hurled at a building along Taft Avenue in Manila yesterday, the third attempt on the same building in two months.

The fragmentation grenade was a dud, just like the two previous incidents at the J&L Building last July, according to Inspector Arnold Santos, who heads the Manila Police District (MPD) explosives and ordnance division (EOD).

Mayor Joseph Estrada has ordered the MPD’s intelligence division to investigate the grenade-throwing incidents.

The grenades were “hangfires,” which meant their pins had been removed and they could explode anytime. These failed explosions could be caused by factory defects, Santos said.

In the first two incidents, the grenades were lobbed outside the building. Yesterday, however, the explosive was thrown at its gates – in the middle of three vehicles.

“That was more dangerous. If it had exploded, the blast might have hit the vehicles’ gas tanks,” Santos said.

Fragmentation grenades can kill people and damage infrastructure within 12 to 15 meters from the blast.

Had they exploded, the grenades would not only injure those in the building, but motorists, passersby and students, police said. J&L, a commercial-residential condominium, is opposite Philippine Christian University and about five meters away from a gas station.

A month after the first two incidents, investigators said they remain clueless as to the possible motive. No suspects have been identified or apprehended, according to Superintendent Romeo Macapaz, chief of MPD Station 5, which has jurisdiction on the area where J&L is located.

Macapaz said he talked to building owner Betty Lim, who claimed “that they had no enemies and their business was okay.”

Santos said it would be up to the investigators to determine the motive, “but definitely these grenades were designed to destroy lives and properties.”

In all three incidents, the MPD-EOD “disrupted the grenades in place,” as they could no longer move them. The operation lasts an hour.