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By Ruben Manahan 4th, Reporter
Seventeen persons were injured on
Tuesday in an explosion that was believed to have been caused by a
hand grenade in front of the exclusive La Consolacion College on
Mendiola Street in Manila, a few meters away from Malacañang
Palace.
Officials linked the blast to
rivalry between two university fraternities.
Police said the blast outside La
Consolacion, about 500 meters from the Palace, was apparently
unrelated to President Gloria Arroyo’s political problems.
President Arroyo, who faces calls
to resign over corruption allegations, was not in the Palace at the
time, Brig. Gen. Romeo Prestoza, chief of the Presidential Security
Group, said. She was in northern Baguio City to address graduates of
the Philippine Military Academy’s Batch 2008.
Of the 17 injured, 15 were taken
to Mary Chiles Hospital; Ericson Fuentes, a student of Centro
Escolar University adjoining La Consolacion, to the University of
Santo Tomas Hospital; and an unidentified female student, to the
Manila Medical Center.
The two other injured were
identified as Vic Jeffrey Marcos, a security guard of Centro Escolar;
and Marlon Manuel Rubio, a security guard of the College of the Holy
of Spirit across La Consolacion.
Chief Insp. Elias Lagasca of the
Manila Police District-Explosives and Ordnance Division said the
grenade went off around 4 p.m.
The hand grenade was said to have
been thrown on a part of a street faced by both La Consolacion and
Holy Spirit.
A grey Toyota Estima and a Honda
CRV were hit by shrapnels from the explosion.
Police were still investigating
the incident as of press time.
Manila police chief Geary Barias
said two members of a university fraternity have been taken in for
questioning, although they were not yet being treated as suspects.
Ordnance experts found fragments
of a homemade pipe bomb at the site, which has been cordoned off.
“It looks like a fraternity
war, rivalry among a group of students, because of what we found in
the area,” Barias said.
A group of young men wearing red
shirts and brown caps were seen running away moments before the
blast, he added, quoting witnesses.
One student was killed and
another injured in a gang attack last weekend, which was said to be
connected to a fraternity war at the same university.
Police could not say whether the
two incidents were related.
--AFP
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