Police detonate ‘pipe bomb’ in Isabela subdivision

SANTIAGO CITY, Isabela — Members of the police and Army bomb-disposal squads detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) called "pipe bomb" in Barangay Calao East in this city on Sunday, police said in a belated report Tuesday. Santiago City police director Senior Superintendent Severino Abad said the pipe bomb, which had four crossed pipes stuffed with explosive materials and attached to batteries and wires, was detonated last Sunday in front of the house of Potenciana Rosales at 45 Daisy street in Baptista Village subdivision. Reports on the presence of the explosive near Rosales’ house prompted the villagers to ask help from the police, who spent hours in securing the site and later in defusing the device. Rosales had earlier suspected the orange plastic sando bag left at her house was garbage, but she was shocked to see wires and batteries in it. The written address on the package read: To Rex Madrid, R.I.P. But the address of Rex’s house was at Number 50, in the same street. "The bomb was directed to a particular person so we are focusing on a personal motive in this case," Abad said. Earlier, police operatives found a fake bomb that was allegedly thrown inside a public market in the city. — Joel Nueva/LBG, GMANews.TV