No leads yet on bomb try on mayor's house

SANTIAGO CITY , Philippines  – Police are still clueless as to who planted an explosive device on the roof of the residence of this city’s woman mayor last Dec. 30.

Senior Superintendent Reynaldo Sinaon, city police chief, said they still have no leads on the improvised bomb found in the house of Mayor Amelita Navarro on Turingan street in Barangay Centro East. 

“What was placed on the roof was a dummy (bomb), basically complete except for the exploding device. Had the bomb been detonated, it could have caused grave damage, even blowing up the (mayor’s) whole house,” Sinaon said.

Navarro, however, said she suspects that her political opponents could be behind the planting of the bomb.

“This was from desperate persons who cannot accept defeat and who want me dead. But they will not succeed as long as Heaven is with me,” she said.

Navarro, who is seeking her third and final term as mayor of this region’s premier city, said she was not taking the discovery of the bomb on her roof lightly, whether it was a dummy bomb or the more explosive thing.

“The (bomb) was an evidence of a bodily threat on my life whether they intended just to scare me or to really kill me. I don’t scare easily anyway,” she said. 

Last month, an unidentified person claimed in a text message that a bomb was planted in the justice hall here, causing panic among court employees and visitors. It turned out to be a hoax.