CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna , Philippines – Tension ran high at a regional trial court (RTC) in Sta. Cruz, Laguna when security personnel found an improvised explosive device there early yesterday morning, police said.
Superintendent Marvin Saro, Sta. Cruz police chief, said two security guards manning the RTC building noticed smoke billowing from the clerk of court’s office at around 2:30 a.m.
Saro said the guards immediately entered the room and found an improvised explosive device packed in a small red box with a cellular phone as the triggering device and a lighter fluid, under a cabinet containing old records.
Saro said the bomb was not apparently meant to hurt anybody as no shrapnel or solid object was found inside it, but probably intended to cause a fire that would burn the records.