28 September 2005
Store yields banned bomb-making items
NATIONAL Bureau of Investigation agents, acting on a tip, swooped down Thursday on an agricultural store supply in Calasiao town and seized 335 bags of ammonium nitrate, several pieces of blasting caps and detonating cords.
Lawyer Diosdado Araos, leader of the NBI raiding team, said all of the items came from the Mapanao Agricultural Supply store in Poblacion, Calasiao owned by Rolando Mapanao who was arrested and detained at the NBI detention cell in Dagupan City.
The raid was conducted a week after the NBI received a tip from a friend of Mapanao who squealed on the latter’s illegal operation of selling the banned ingredients needed for the manufacture of bombs and explosives.
“We verified the information and applied the necessary search warrant after that,” Araos said, adding that nobody suspected the store to be selling ammonium nitrate because the crystalline materials were neatly concealed in bags of fish feeds at 25 kilos per bag.
A report said that this was the second time Mapanao was arrested for selling bags of ammonium nitrate. The first was when the branch of his agricultural store in Mangaldan town was raided by agents of the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division of the police a few years ago.
A case for violation of Presidential Decree 1866 as amended by Republic Act 8296 or the act punishing illegal possession of firearms, ammunitions and explosives is now being prepared against Mapanao and his cohorts.
Araos admitted that ammonium nitrate is really a sensitive ingredient for the manufacture of bombs, especially with the presence of blasting caps and detonating cords inside Mapanao’s store.
It is different from ammonium sulfate, a commercial salt manufactured from ammoniac liquor produced in the manufacture of gas and used as nitrogenous fertilizer.
Possession and sale of ammonium nitrate is punishable by law unless the person owning or selling this has a license from the Philippine National Police.
The ammonium nitrate seized from Mapanao were however believed not intended for terrorist activities but for illegal fishing activities. Many fishermen from various coastal towns of Pangasinan were frequenting the agricultural supply, it was learned.
Officials said this could explain why blast fishing continues unabated in the municipal waters of the Lingayen Gulf, near Dagupan City, San Fabian and Damortis, Sto. Tomas, La Union.
Lawyer Diosdado Araos, leader of the NBI raiding team, said all of the items came from the Mapanao Agricultural Supply store in Poblacion, Calasiao owned by Rolando Mapanao who was arrested and detained at the NBI detention cell in Dagupan City.
The raid was conducted a week after the NBI received a tip from a friend of Mapanao who squealed on the latter’s illegal operation of selling the banned ingredients needed for the manufacture of bombs and explosives.
“We verified the information and applied the necessary search warrant after that,” Araos said, adding that nobody suspected the store to be selling ammonium nitrate because the crystalline materials were neatly concealed in bags of fish feeds at 25 kilos per bag.
A report said that this was the second time Mapanao was arrested for selling bags of ammonium nitrate. The first was when the branch of his agricultural store in Mangaldan town was raided by agents of the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division of the police a few years ago.
A case for violation of Presidential Decree 1866 as amended by Republic Act 8296 or the act punishing illegal possession of firearms, ammunitions and explosives is now being prepared against Mapanao and his cohorts.
Araos admitted that ammonium nitrate is really a sensitive ingredient for the manufacture of bombs, especially with the presence of blasting caps and detonating cords inside Mapanao’s store.
It is different from ammonium sulfate, a commercial salt manufactured from ammoniac liquor produced in the manufacture of gas and used as nitrogenous fertilizer.
Possession and sale of ammonium nitrate is punishable by law unless the person owning or selling this has a license from the Philippine National Police.
The ammonium nitrate seized from Mapanao were however believed not intended for terrorist activities but for illegal fishing activities. Many fishermen from various coastal towns of Pangasinan were frequenting the agricultural supply, it was learned.
Officials said this could explain why blast fishing continues unabated in the municipal waters of the Lingayen Gulf, near Dagupan City, San Fabian and Damortis, Sto. Tomas, La Union.
