THE main office of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) became the second place in Manila to luckily escape bombing in two days after a fragmentation grenade thrown by still unknown suspects at the compound of the Customs Police (Enforcement Security Service, ESS), Port of Manila, early Saturday morning, January 29, 2022, failed to explode.
The grenade, which was later on “disrupted” on site by the Explosives and Ordnance Division (EOD) of the Manila Police District, is the third grenade safely detonated by the EOD after a fragmentation grenade that failed to explode was thrown at the ‘Manila Arena’ in Sta. Ana, early Thursday evening, January 27, 2022 by two motorcycle-riding suspects.
On Friday, the EOD was again called at the Manila Arena to defuse yet another live grenade that again failed to explode and which was left by still unknown suspects at the cockpit’s parking lot.
The Manila Arena is where live cockfighting is being held daily, with the games being broadcasted live until the very early hours of the next day.
The incident at the BOC also prompted the ESS to place its entire personnel on “red alert.”
“All ESS (Customs Police) personnel in NCR offices are directed to be on Red Alert. All district commanders (are instructed to) conduct accounting of your men and be on alert,” reads part of a memorandum released by the ESS.
It can be recalled that it was the ESS that conducted an initial investigation on a man arrested last Tuesday, January 25, 2022, at the Manila International Container Port (MICP), while “acting suspiciously” and taking photographs of the plate numbers of several customs employees.
The suspect, named ‘Ricmoreno Paja, purportedly an employee of ‘Mcjordan 101 Printing Services,’ also yielded a loaded .45 caliber pistol and a hand grenade, among others.
Paja, sources said, is now under police custody.
Prior to this, 3 customs employees have already fallen victims to gun attacks since December 2021, by still unknown suspects. One of them, Eudes Nerpio, a principal appraiser at the MICP, was killed after being shot in Binondo, Manila by a motorcycle-riding gunman last January 7, 2022.
The arrest of Paja raised fear among customs employees that they are being deliberately targeted for assassination.
Authorities, meanwhile, are yet to establish if the grenade-throwing incident at the BOC is connected to the two incidents at the Manila Arena.