ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / May 3, 2014) – One person was killed and several more wounded following a grenade attack Saturday in Zamboanga City in southern Philippines, police said.
Police said the attack occurred outside the lumberyard of Dacon Company in the village of Recodo where squatters were protesting the ongoing fencing being carried out by the firm.
“The grenade explosion transpired along the road where the ongoing fence construction of Dacon Company resulting to the killing of one person. The wounded were rushed to the hospital,” said Senior Inspector Joseph Ortega, a regional police spokesman.
He identified the lone fatality as Hamudi Bairula, 19, and the wounded as John Ray Maghanoy, Enrico Menor, Robert Glog, Loreto Morales, all government militias securing the company; and Dacon workers Elmer Tadeo and Ariston Sarato.
He said the grenade was hurled by an unidentified man directly towards construction site.
Ortega said no individual or group claimed responsibility for the explosion. He said police are investigating the motive of the attack, but it could be connected to the demand by squatters to stop the fencing around the lumberyard.
He said policemen were deployed in the village to prevent the escalation of violence.
On Thursday, several people were also injured when illegal settlers clashed workers and security guards of Dacon. Villagers who illegally squatted outside the lumberyard said the fencing would cut their roadway to the area which is owned by the logging firm.
Angry protesters hurled rocks at the workers and security guards and the violence only stopped after policeman and soldiers arrived in the area and pacified the villagers.
Logging executives said workers are just increasing the height of their existing fence due to security concerns.
In February this year, an unidentified gunman fired a rifle grenade into the company company compound. Although there were no reports of casualties, the blast proved how vulnerable the company from attacks.
Just last month, a mysterious fire at the company’s lumberyard destroyed millions of pesos in assets. (Mindanao Examiner)
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