GUIMBA, Nueva Ecija (PNA) – A tricycle driver was killed while four persons, including two minors, were hurt in an explosion of suspected improvised explosive device along the national road in Barangay Pasong Intsik here Monday afternoon.
Killed was Marvin Barrientos, 40, a resident of Barangay Pacac here. His backrider, public school teacher Joe Laurence Mata, was rushed to a hospital in Tarlac City due to eye injuries.
The two minors, a grade 10 boy and grade 11 girl, sustained minor injuries and were brought to the hospital shortly.
The other victim was a tricycle driver who rammed the one driven by Barrientos after the latter went wayward.
Inspector Ronald Stockton, deputy chief of police, on Tuesday said that Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) personnel from the Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) have yet to ascertain what has exploded.
A witness from the residential area some 500 meters from the explosion site said they strongly felt the explosion in their area.
But witnesses believe it was an explosive planted by an unidentified suspect intended for a team of policemen that has just passed through the road on board a police mobile.
The policemen came from an investigation duty in a warehouse that was burned by suspected New People’s Army (NPA) members in nearby Nampicuan town Sunday.
Stockton said an investigation is ongoing and “could not say anything conclusive yet.”
The EOD personnel recovered few suspected shrapnels from the area.