CAMP GEN. PANTALEON GARCIA, IMUS, Cavite – The mortar-type improvised explosive device (IED) found in a Manila-bound passenger bus in Dasmariñas District last Thursday here is not a terror bomb.
A Cavite Police Provincial Office (PPO) source said that the device, an 81mm mortar with a mobile phone, was left by an individual in the bus apparently to scare passengers.
“It has no capacity to explode. The device has no blasting cap or fuse and that the cellphone has no battery or SIM card. It is left by someone to scare passengers,” the source, a PPO officer, told this reporter.
Senior Superintendent Arthur Velasco Bisnar, PPO director, withheld any details about the device for the meantime pending its investigation.
“The PPO and (national police) intelligence counterpart are on the investigation process, the motive is also being looked into,” said Bisnar.
A PPO report said that device was found by a passenger, one Ryan Denver Lopez, in the gray backpack bag under the seat of the Jasper Jean bus (Body No. 81007) driven by one Pantilo Narabong Jr at a terminal on Aguinaldo Highway in Barangay Salitran I, Dasmariñas, at 7:20 a.m. Thursday. (Anthony Giron)