Koronadal farmer surrenders explosives

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – A farmer in Koronadal City voluntarily surrendered on Monday two live 60-mm mortar projectiles and a fragmentation grenade he found neatly kept in a sealed military traveling chest owned by his soldier-sibling who died of a lingering illness last year, police said.

Larry Abuan, 35, told investigators he immediately decided to turn over to authorities the mortar projectiles and the fragmentation grenade, bound by electrical wires wrapped with a duct tape, after sensing they were live explosives.

The policemen who received the box containing the explosives brought to their station immediately called an Army bomb disposal team to remove the mechanical contraptions that could set them off.

Local officials lauded Abuan’s swift action that led to the safe disposal of the explosives owned by his deceased sibling.

Several hours later, policemen seized assorted firearms from a resident in nearby Isulan town in Sultan Kudarat while cracking down on illegal gun holders in the province.

Senior Supt. Rolen Balquin, provincial police director of Sultan Kudarat, said the operatives that raided the houses of Jun Talipasan and his younger brother, Emie, in Barangay Kalawag II in Isulan, were armed with a search warrant issued by a local court.

The Talipasan siblings voluntarily turned themselves in when policemen found two caliber .45 pistols, an M-16 assault rifle and assorted ammunition in their adjoining houses.

Balquin said the Isulan police learned of the Talipasans’ keeping of unlicensed guns from barangay officials that helped plan out the raid.