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  1. derivative_guru

    derivative_guru DI Senior Member

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    From the most recent edition of the Negros Chronicle. Their is also a photo, but no story under breaking news of an "apparent double suicide".

    The Negros Chronicle - News around Dumaguete City and Negros Oriental, Philippines Post Topic Who was the target? Big Ben or Silliman?

    Who was the target? Big Ben or Silliman?

    Police investigators are still trying to establish who was the main target of the August 13 grenade throwing incident at the President’s Home inside the Silliman University campus.
    The PNP’s bomb disposal unit recovered two live fragmentation grenades on the roof of the official residence of President Ben Malayang III believed to have been thrown at 2:00 AM on August 13.
    Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office Director Sr. Supt. Augusto Marquez Jr. identified the two anti-personnel grenades as M56 and PRB 423 capable of causing damage and death for those within its 25 meter radius.

    Marquez said that based on the initial investigation, the grenade-throwing incident was meant to deliver a message but was not directed against the University itself.
    SU President Ben Malayang III believes that he or university was not the target. “I would like to believe that it was just a random act of criminality,” he stressed.
    He also maintains that he had not received any death threats personal or work related. However, he admits that as an institution, Silliman University are into contentions with some people like disgruntled students, staff, alumni or even community members.
    There are two groups of claimants over some lands owned by Silliman University: a group of families calling themselves the Exodus and some members of the Generoso clan from Mindanao.
    Malayang refuses to believe that any of these two groups were behind the incident as they are “honorable and reasonable.”
    However, Malayang said that harming him will not make any sense because he does not own Silliman University. As President, he simply executes the policies of the 15-seat Board of Trustees, which is divided into three groups with five seats each and independent from one another: Silliman University Alumni Association Inc.; United Church of Christ in the Philippines and the Silliman University Foundation Incorporated.
    Malayang also vehemently denied the incident is related to some family dispute on properties in Occidental Mindoro. He emphatically pointed out he has “no property of his own before and after he served in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and now as President of Silliman University.”
    His family may have own some tracts of land, but he said that they have already opted to have them covered under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program through the voluntary offer to sell mode.
    FIRST-HANDACCOUNT: President Malayang narrated the events of August 13 leading to the discovery of the grenades near the room he was staying:
    It was about 2:00 o’clock in the morning and I was in a room where I normally do my reading when I heard two heavy thuds on the roof seconds apart. I initially thought them to be fallen fruits or stones thrown from Silliman Avenue.
    But there was no explosion.
    So I resumed my reading. Upon taking my breakfast past 7:00 AM, I asked my student help to check the roof. From the window facing Silliman Avenue we saw near it two grenade-looking objects, so we summoned the security guards who also concluded the same and reported the matter to the PNP.
    The bomb disposal unit arrived and determined that the two objects were indeed live grenades. Apparently, they failed to explode because while the primary pin of the M56 was removed, its secondary pin was in place and the lever of the PRB 423 was still taped.
    Lt. Col. Erwin Bernard Neri of the 71st Infantry Masaligan Battalion said the grenades are no longer part of the inventory of the military while 15th Infantry Lapu-Lapu Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Nemesio Gacal surmised that the grenades may have been illegally obtained through the black market. Gacal shares that “mere possession of such explosive will land you in jail without bail.”
    Although convinced that it was an isolated incident, the University has assigned a security personnel across Silliman Avenue, increased the height of the protective net of its perimeter fence and detailed Dr.
     
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