Ground Report

           Twenty people, most of them students, were injured following an explosion in front of the La Consolacion College along Laurel Street in Mendiola, meters away from the sentry gate of the Presidential Security Group in Malacañang Tuesday afternoon.

              Bomb experts from the Manila Police District said a grenade exploded 4:25 p.m. under a Honda CRV with plate number XDB-530 in front of the Manila exclusive school near Malacañang. Police said they also found fragments of an MK-2 fragmentation grenade at the blast site. Probers also discovered a pillbox that did not explode.

                    Police are still investigating the fraternity war angle after a witness named Precy Asuncion, the operations manager of La Consolacion, said she saw some young men waiting beside a fish ball vendor when another group arrived. One of the members of the last group threw the grenade.

              Fifteen of the victims were taken to the Mary Chiles Hospital in Sampaloc, Manila.

                   Of the 15 victims, 12 are students of La Consolacion, San Beda College and College of the Holy Spirit and one from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines; two are security guards, one vendor and one eight-year-old boy.

           Victims were identified as Rizel Carias, 18; Melanie Bonifacio, 19; Harold Castaneda, 19; Marlon Monteruvio, 46; Helen Soriano, 35; Esmeralda de la Armas, 19; John Lemuel Gomez, 8; Ara Luis de Guzman, 19; Jeffrey Marcos, 34; Jenny Gangcuangco, 22; Joanna Marie Alvarez, 19; Ian Javier, 19; Hannah Cristina Lee, 19; Michelle Francisco, 20; and Reginald Nague, 19.

               Meanwhile, Presidential Security Group commander treated the explosion as a “police matter” after being asked if the blast was aimed at Malacañang. President Arroyo was not in Malacanang at the time of the blast.  She left earlier that morning to attend the graduation ceremonies at the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City.

                     Authorities are still investigating the incident.