7 hurt in GenSan grenade blast

COTABATO CITY - Seven bystanders were injured in a grenade blast that ripped through a plaza in General Santos City on Tuesday night.

The incident preceded an explosion that rocked Lamitan City in Basilan province two hours later.

Superintendent Rolly Octavio, deputy police director of General Santos City, said the victims were rushed to different hospitals for medication by responding policemen and local officials.

The victims identified as Sarah Alquiza, Marlon Pajada, Paul Aminong, James Abrea, Fe Magnanao, Geraldine Eron, and Michelle Abranilla sustained shrapnel wounds in different parts of their bodies.

Octavio said investigators were trying to determine who could have perpetrated the bombing and the motive for the attack.

He said they are still validating reports that one of two men seen roaming suspiciously around the plaza was the one who threw the grenade near a monument of Jose Rizal.

Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao told reporters that he had received confidential information about a plot to bomb General Santos City and told the police about it.

“Bakit naman kailangan pang madamay ang mga inosenteng tao? May natangap akong intelligence report pero 'di ko lang alam kung saan at kung kailan gagawin ang bombing,” Pacquiao said.

Two hours later, a grenade explosion rocked a warehouse in Barangay Maganda in west of Lamitan City, provincial capital of Basilan, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Lamitan City Vice-Mayor Roderick Furigay said the owner of the warehouse, businessman Bobong Yumul, could not say who could have been the person who threw the fragmentation grenade near the warehouse.

Furigay said probers are still gathering information on the incident.

He said the explosion triggered panic among villagers residing around Yumul’s warehouse.