By Jennifer P. Rendon
An abandoned bag containing a “handgun” and an “explosive” caused panic among employees of the Guimaras Provincial Capitol.
The bag was discovered at around 11:40 a.m. on July 18 at the entrance of the new Capitol building in Barangay San Miguel, Jordan town.
According to police reports, a laborer saw the pink shoulder bag and thought it contained a grenade.
Members of the Provincial EOD and Canine Unit (PECU) – Guimaras immediately conducted an inspection of other parts of the provincial Capitol building and its surroundings. They then remotely removed the unattended shoulder bag by dragging it.
Upon inspection, PECU personnel found the bag contained a pellet gun and a toy grenade.
The bag also held a bottle of perfume, a female wristwatch, a pair of green shorts, a ball cap, a notebook, and assorted documents, including a school transcript.
Colonel Rhea Santos, Guimaras police chief, said the school records had the name of a student who studied at Central Philippine University (CPU) in Iloilo City.
“From that record, we were able to trace that the possible owner entered Jordan Wharf at around 8 a.m. on Thursday,” she said.
The manifesto also revealed she left by 10 a.m.
Santos said they then checked with the municipal station in Iloilo province to investigate the woman’s identity. It turned out that police had responded to a call for assistance earlier that day after the woman became unruly.
The 28-year-old woman was allegedly suffering from an undisclosed mental illness. She left home and was presumed to have traveled to Guimaras.
As of Thursday afternoon, she was already home, but her family could not yet speak to her.
It was unclear why she was carrying a pellet gun and a toy grenade in her bag.
