3 Quezon brothers killed after hammering grenade

Camp Vicente Lim, Laguna, Philippines – Three brothers aged five to 15 were killed last Friday morning in Catanauan, Quezon town when one of them hammered a grenade he had found near the site of an encounter between military and communist rebel forces, police said. 

Chief Inspector Elmar Cillador, Catanauan police chief, identified the victims as Romnick Arpia, 15, and his younger siblings Joselito, 12, and Hilario Christian Joseph, five.

Romnick, a report said, found the canister of an M-203 grenade in the vicinity of the military-New People’s Army encounter.

Romnick brought the grenade home and hammered it in front of his two brothers until it exploded.

Police said Romnick and Joselito were killed on the spot while Hilario died while being treated at the Peninsula District Hospital. – Arnell Ozaeta, Ed Amoroso