Explosives seized in GenSan raid

General Santos City, South Cotabato (Pixabay photo)

GENERAL SANTOS CITY— Joint police operatives recovered several explosives in an operation early Wednesday in a village here.

Chief Insp. Renato Salarda, chief of the Makar police station, said the explosives were found inside the house of couple Edon and Senalia Pendatun in Purok Maunlad, Phase 2 in Barangay Apopong.

Armed with a search warrant, he said they swooped down on Pendatun compound at past 4 a.m. along with elements from the city police’s explosives ordnance disposal unit.

The official said they found three live rifle grenades and a hand grenade inside the main house of the Pendatuns. The search at the family’s nearby old house yielded negative.

In an interview with reporters, Edon Pendatun denied owning the seized explosives, which were found inside a cabinet.

“I don’t own any firearm or any weapon. I don’t even know how to fire a gun,” the 59-year-old suspect said in the vernacular in a radio interview.

He said he did not know where the recovered items came from and had no idea who placed them inside the cabinet.

Senalia reiterated her husband’s claims and noted that she was surprised with the supposed recovery of the explosives inside their house.

But she admitted that they were often out of their house to attend to their business at the city public market.

The suspects and the recovered explosives are presently in the custody of the Makar or city police station number 02 here.

Salarda said the Pendatuns would be charged with illegal possession of explosives.