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QUEZON,
Nueva Ecija—Five people were killed, four of them
children, when a grenade launcher which they mistook for
a piece of gold exploded in a village here.
Residents in that small village beside a river admitted
they were shocked when they heard the explosion. One
thought it was a tire of a 10-wheeler cargo truck that
busted. A girl said she felt her chest pounding heavily.
The women instinctively called out loud their children’s
names.
“I
thought it was a liquefied petroleum gas that exploded.
It reverberated in the ground, reaching as far as the
church, about four kilometers away, according to those
who were there doing some preparations for the Holy
Week,” said Joepen Victorio, 19, whose 11-year-old
sister Judy Ann and five-year-old brother John Louis
were hit by the powerful blast.
The
other victims were Philip Penuliar, 20, Juvy May Dotimas,
6, and Mary Anne Jardiniano, 9.
Residents of Tabing Ilog, a portion of barangay Santa
Clara, said victims were playing in the river before
noon Saturday when they found the rocket-grenade M203
half-buried in the
sand and mistook it for a piece of gold. Judy Ann
immediately grabbed it and, followed by the others, ran
toward her uncle riding a bike.
“They
handed it to their uncle [Philip Penuliar], he being the
older one in the group. He might have pounded it quite
hard against the bicycle handle bar. And it exploded,”
said Sr. Insp. Eduardo Pajarillo, Quezon town police
chief.
The
police investigators confirmed it as an M203 grenade
launcher from the description given by a boy-witness and
the metal fragments found in the badly mangled body of
Philip.
Ronron
Pangilinan, 15, said: “It had the size and shape of a
sardine can. They even mockingly threw it at me, but
then they ran to Uncle Philip to check instead.”
Pajarillo said this should not have happened if the
children were advised by their parents to report any
unusual object they see, adding that the explosive could
have been brought into that part of the river from
somewhere.
The
residents said some unidentified men riding luxury
vehicles often do test-firing in the river.
Some
quarters suspected it must have fallen from some Army
soldiers in the area, especially when retired Army
commander Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan ordered a round-up
of the place while looking for communist rebels. |
