2 killed, 9 hurt in Ecija grenade blast

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — Two persons were killed while nine others, including a five-year-old girl, were wounded, eight of them seriously, when a grenade was lobbed at a house in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija last Wednesday night.

Chief Superintendent Alejandro Lapinid, Central Luzon police director, said a family feud probably motivated the incident at the Habitat Community Village in Barangay Sto. Niño III.

"Our investigation indicated that the incident was provoked by vendetta, but the (grenade throwers) either mistook the wrong house or their grenade simply missed its target," Lapinid said.

PO3 Arnel Torres, of the San Jose City police, told The STAR that the grenade was hurled at the half-finished house of Allan and Rowena Soliven, a neighbor of Bonifacio Balones whom the attackers were asking about.

Lapinid said Balones was a known "tough guy" in the neighborhood who, along with his family, had abandoned his house next to the Solivens four days before the incident.

He said one of Balones’ sons reportedly beat up one of the suspected grenade throwers.

Torres said the attackers fired three gunshots minutes before lobbing the grenade. Hearing the gunfire, residents, led by barangay chairman Rodrigo Abellera, gathered at the Solivens’ home, and it was then when the explosion occurred.

Killed were Rodolfo Pante and Jomer Tudla, and seriously wounded were Abellera, 42; Ronald Sembrano, 21; Santiago Ayes, 60; Rowena Soliven, 21; Reynaldo Pablo, 41; Allan Soliven, 22; and Joy Minoza, 22.

Two others, Violeta Soliven and her five-year-old daughter Daniela, sustained minor shrapnel wounds, Torres said.

The attackers left a 12-gauge homemade shotgun in the vicinity. — With Ric Sapnu and James Mananghaya