CATBALOGAN CITY (Updated) -- A police officer and a security aide were hurt in three grenade blasts that hit two residential houses and a warehouse owned by the mayor of San Jorge town in Samar early Tuesday, January 31.
Wounded in the blasts were Artemio Rebato, a junior police officer assigned to secure Mayor Joseph Grey, and security aide Jimmy Mariquit. They were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Witnesses said residents were alarmed after hearing three loud explosions around 3 a.m. in three villages where the houses of Grey were located.
Sketchy reports reaching VoxPop revealed that an undetermined number of persons aboard a motorcycle escorted by a tinted van hurdled the grenades to Grey's houses.
Witnesses said the men first hurdled a grenade at Grey's main residence in Barangay Mancol. They proceeded to the other two residences of Grey in Barangay Aurora and along China road.
The mayor was not hurt in the incident.
Superintendent Feliciano Romero, officer-in-charge of Samar police provincial office, said they are now hunting those responsible for the grenade attacks.
A team from the police explosive ordnance disposal proceeded to the blast site Tuesday morning.
“Standard operating procedures are now being conducted at the blast site to establish the motive of the blast,” Romero said.
The attacks Tuesday occurred three days after Grey's three sons, namely, Francis, Stephen and Michael, along with a certain "Abawag," were tagged in an alleged slay-try of one Lester Bisnar, 49, and his aide Jiboy Romanda, 24, both residents of Barangay La Paz of San Jorge.
Bisnar and Romanda survived the attack and were able to give statements to police few minutes after the incident. They tagged the Grey siblings as suspects.
Bisnar said that around 2:40 p.m. of January 28, while he and Romanda were traversing a national highway in San Jorge onboard a motorcycle, they noticed that they were being followed by the suspects who were onboard a Toyota Hi-Ace with plate number SAA-3292.
Bisnar added that upon reaching the "God's Town" area in San Jorge, the suspects overtook them, prompting them to immediately turn back and speed away.
He also said that they were chased by the suspects, who fired at them, hitting them in the different parts of their bodies.
The San Jorge police, led by Senior Inspector Edwin Tolibas, recovered from the crime scene one fired cartridge and a broken side-cover from the victims' motorcycle.
Bisnar is a mayoralty candidate under Nacionalista Party who fought it out but lost to Grey in the 2016 elections.
Last May 2016, Bisnar and a certain Noel Jabolin, 37, was also ambushed but survived. They also tagged the Grey siblings.
Mayor Grey, whose family has been ruling San Jorge town for more than a decade, cannot be reached for comment as of Tuesday.
San Jorge is about 140 kilometers from Tacloban City, Eastern Visayas' cpital. It is a fourth-class town subdivided into 42 villages with a population of more than 17,000. (RJB/With PNA/VoxPop Philippines)