Blasting caps seized

Coast Guard operatives confiscated some 45,000 blasting caps abandoned aboard a passenger vessel in Tawi-Tawi last Saturday.

A report reaching the Coast Guard headquarters in Manila said the blasting caps were contained in a coffee carton crate left behind on MV Magnolia Fragrance which docked at the Sitangkai port in Tawi-Tawi before noon Saturday.

The vessel reportedly came from the Tawi-Tawi island of Bongao.

Coast Guard personnel boarded the ship while at sea and escorted it to the Sitangkai port, unaware of the cargo of blasting caps.

After all the passengers had disembarked, they found the crate unattended to. They waited for 30 minutes for somebody to claim it. No claimant surfaced and they decided to open the crate which to their surprise, contained blasting caps housed in smaller boxes. — Jose Aravilla