This, as the street children stumbled upon 12 "cocktail bombs" in an old building of the Zamboanga Barter Center along Valderoza street, just a few meters away from City Hall, at 7 a.m. yesterday, according to Chief Inspector Jose Bayani Gucela, the city’s police intelligence chief and head of the explosive and ordnance unit.
"Akala namin rugby (We thought it was rugby)," said one of the boys, who promptly reported their find to patrolling policemen.
The "rugby boys" have earned the monicker for sniffing solvent. They were either abandoned by their parents or had stowed away due to maltreatment.
The city police and the military’s Task Force Zamboanga have been securing churches and other public places to thwart any terror attacks.
In other developments, a fragmentation grenade was found near a bridge in Davao City yesterday morning, while Coast Guard men intercepted a container van loaded with 17 sacks of ammonium nitrate used in making explosives, in Ozamiz City the other day.
Davao City authorities believe the grenade and the bomb found near an ATM booth outside the Victoria Plaza Mall last week could be the handiwork of certain individuals riding on the bomb scare in Metro Manila and other cities.
A jeepney driver, Francisco Tadora, 52, found the grenade near the Gov. Generoso Bridge. He said three men left the explosive there.
The Coast Guard detachment in Ozamiz acted upon an intelligence report that an undetermined quantity of ammonium nitrate was being shipped to the city from Cebu City on board M/V Olo Fatima. — With Edith Regalado and Nestor Etolle